Summer Solstice Watermelon Salad

Originally published June 11, 2024, on Ko-Fi.

Every year, I do a feast for each of the solstices and equinoxes. This is the first recipe for the 2024 Summer Solstice! My main goal for the overall meal is generating energy, preparing for the darkening half of the year, enhancing success for upcoming projects, and celebrating the sun. These themes repeat throughout the meal in a variety of ways.

I always serve seasonal fruits as snacks before a feast, and that's how this watermelon salad recipe started. Now, I prefer it as a delicious side dish to provide a burst of freshness. It brings a distinctly Summer feeling to the meal that other salads don't quite manage. I suggest getting fresh, local produce at a farmer's market or local stall if you can! Local-grown watermelons just hit different.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 of a Large Watermelon
  • 2 c Fresh Spinach
  • 1/2 c Feta, crumbled
  • 1/8 c Balsamic Vinegar (or to taste)

Instructions:

  1. Wash your spinach and then pat dry.
  2. Cut the watermelon into one-inch cubes.
  3. In a large bowl, toss the watermelon, spinach, and feta together until well combined.
  4. Drizzle with the balsamic vinegar.
  5. Serve immediately. If not serving immediately, wait to drizzle the balsamic vinegar until just before serving and refrigerate the watermelon, spinach, and feta mixture.

Recipe Notes:

  • I first had this salad at a local sandwich shop one summer. I've been obsessed ever since. It's quick, it's easy, and it's absolutely delicious.
  • If you don't like balsamic vinegar, you can omit it. Instead, I would suggest a sprinkling of salt and pepper to give it a little more depth of flavor. You could also use another type of salad dressing, but I would advise against using something with strong flavors that would overwhelm the watermelon flavor.
  • The amount of feta in the recipe is a suggestion. I often end up adding more than half a cup, because I like it. Half a cup is the minimum amount I would suggest.
  • This is a must-have in my picnic baskets and at summertime parties. If you're making this for a crowd, I would suggest doubling the recipe and using a whole watermelon. I tend to go for one without seeds, but you can choose whatever type you prefer.
  • To make this a more fortifying main dish, I've added cubed or shredded chicken to the mix. You could also toss in a bit of tofu if you prefer to keep things vegetarian.

Magic Notes:

  • Watermelons are about 90% water. This means they have a strong connection to the element of water and its properties. In my practice, this means it has elements of healing, calm, wisdom, and emotion. In particular, also thanks to the color and personally-studied effects, watermelon is useful for workings surrounding romantic love, self love, and joy.
  • Spinach is my favorite leafy green, and it's also good for you! I associate it heavily with health and wellness, but it's lent itself well to workings surrounding wealth and success, too.
  • Balsamic vinegar is made from grapes! Like wine, it's an aged product that requires a lot of time and patience before it's ready to use. And like wine made from grapes, it can be associated with a range of things like love, abundance, and harvest. I find that ingredients which have been aged or which require a long time to produce make excellent contenders for magical workings surrounding hard work and gratitude.
  • Put them all together (with the rich, salty feta cheese), and you've got a recipe that can lend itself toward any number of purposes. For the Summer Solstice, I'm emphasizing the qualities of joy, wellness, and hard work. The idea is to acknowledge the work that's already been done and prepare for the second half of the year, imparting energy and motivation on whoever eats the salad.
  • If your watermelon has seeds, you can either leave them in if they won't bother you, or you can remove the ones you're able to get to while cutting the melon into cubes. Set them aside to dry slightly, and you've got a new component for another spell! Seeds of most sorts are good for blessing new projects or endeavors. Because their fruit is so large, I tend to associate watermelon seeds with bringing about big changes or big successes -- new careers, blessing a garden for a large harvest, seeking a new home, and so forth. In my mind, the bigger the goal is, the bigger the seed's fruit (or plant, if it's a tree seed) ought to be.