Vegetables Unleashed

Watermelon is a crazy fruit. Just the size and shape of it invites all kinds of interesting ideas. I thought about grilling it in thick steaks, but Matt said, “Nobody wants to eat hot watermelon” (not that I really believe that). I thought about soaking it in some strange potion that would give it a whole new flavor. Then I turned to my bookshelf, where I found a recipe in a Spanish cookbook from 1879 that instructed readers to stuff a watermelon with chicken and whole black truffles before burying it underground. Probably the most exciting and mysterious and impractical recipe I’ve ever seen. After all that, I ended up in a familiar place, this light and refreshing and supersimple salad that we served at Ku, a noodle house we ran in Las Vegas for years. It will have to tide you over while I work out the details of the buried stuffed watermelon.

SERVES 4

DRESSING

½ cup rice vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1½ teaspoons toasted sesame oil

SALAD

2 watermelon radishes (6 ounces each), peeled and julienned (use a mandoline)

1 small seedless watermelon (4 pounds), rind removed, flesh cut into ½-inch dice and chilled, or 4 cups prediced watermelon

2 loose cups pea shoots

GARNISH

White sesame seeds

FOR THE DRESSING

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and oil in a small bowl and whisk until the sugar and salt have dissolved.

FOR THE SALAD

Add the julienned radishes to the dressing and set aside to marinate for 10 to 20 minutes.

Drain the radishes, reserving the dressing. Mound about a cup of the watermelon on each of four salad plates. Top with the julienned radishes and then the pea shoots. Drizzle a bit of the reserved dressing over the salads, garnish with sesame seeds, and serve.