Five ingredients for a seemingly exotic summer dish, grilled watermelon with salmon skewers and lemon yoghurt. Exotic … maybe, complicated … certainly not, quick … absolutely, summery … definitely.
I got the idea for this dish when I saw my blogger friend’s call to celebrate her 5th blog birthday with her. Petra of Obers trifft Sahne (German food blog) asked us for a blog entry in which the number 5 plays a significant part. She left it entirely to us, though, how the number 5 would come into effect. I decided to go for the admittedly unimaginative form of “5 ingredients”. But what the heck! After all, simple and quick recipes are always in high demand!
Grilling watermelons is quite new to me. It was some weeks ago that I had a really enjoyable evening out with some friends of mine. We went to this lovely restaurant where I saw grilled watermelon as part of a main dish on the menu. I didn’t order this dish, yet it has stuck in my memory ever since. I can’t remember exactly what it was paired with, but I decided to serve it with fish, with salmon skewers, to be exact. Watermelons have always been the ultimate summer refreshment for me and so I wanted something equally light to go with it. That’s when the salmon, the yoghurt and the lemon came into play. As this dish is cooked without any additional oil or fat I decided to use yoghurt with a high percentage of fat, at least 10%. It is also creamier and somehow more solid than low-fat yoghurt and therefore more suitable for this dish.
By the way, I took some of the photos for this blog post by the side of our swimming pool. If summer then wholeheartedly so, don’t you agree!
Salmon Skewers with grilled watermelon and lemon yoghurt
Serves 4
4 slices of watermelon (about ½ inch)
800 g (1 ¾ lb) salmon filet
2 lemons (juice of 2 lemons and zest of 1 lemon)
250 ml (1 cup) Greek yoghurt (10% fat)
salt
Remove the skin of the salmon (use a very sharp knife to cut it off carefully) and cut the salmon into ¼ inch slices. Thread the salmon strips in a wave-like form onto the skewers. (If you use wooden skewers, soak them in water beforehand.) Season with salt and drizzle with some lemon juice.
Mix the yoghurt with some salt, the zest of one lemon and the remaining lemon juice.
Use some kitchen paper to pat the watermelon slices fairly dry. Heat a large pan (preferably a griddle pan, as it creates a nice pattern on the melon), and grill the watermelons on both sides without any oil or fat. Transfer onto a plate and cover them with some kitchen foil to keep warm. Grill the salmon skewers in the same pan, without any oil or fat, until well done.
Serve the skewers on the watermelon and garnish with a spoonful of lemon yoghurt.
Note: Serve coriander rice as a side dish: combine finely chopped coriander leaves with cooked basmati rice.
Here is the recipe for printing:
- 4 slices of watermelon (about ½ inch)
- 800 g (1 ¾ lb) salmon filet
- 2 lemons (juice of 2 lemons and zest of 1 lemon)
- 250 ml (1 cup) Greek yoghurt (10% fat)
- salt
- Remove the skin of the salmon (use a very sharp knife to cut it off carefully) and cut the salmon into ¼ inch slices. Thread the salmon strips in a wave-like form onto the skewers. (If you use wooden skewers, soak them in water beforehand.) Season with salt and drizzle with some lemon juice.
- Mix the yoghurt with some salt, the zest of one lemon and the remaining lemon juice.
- Use some kitchen paper to pat the watermelon slices fairly dry. Heat a large pan (preferably a griddle pan, as it creates a nice pattern on the melon), and grill the watermelons on both sides without any oil or fat. Transfer onto a plate and cover them with some kitchen foil to keep warm. Grill the salmon skewers in the same pan, without any oil or fat, until well done.
- Serve the skewers on the watermelon and garnish with a spoonful of lemon yoghurt.
