I was watching a TV show called The Talk and chef Shota Nakajima was on. He is a James Beard semi finalist, and also a Top Chef finalist among other accolades. Anyways………one of the dishes that he made was this watermelon salad with miso honey dressing and everyone was going crazy tasting it so I figured that I should make it. I didn’t want to make changes to his recipe but I had to because the recipe was for one pint of watermelon and the recipe for the dressing contained three cups of oil and 2 cups of vinegar are way too much for me. I might have created something different but it is really great. Actually the flavors really are so FORKING AMAZING that I cut out all of the blended oil (3 cups) from the original recipe. I made a few other changes but they were only minor. I do recommend not to pre-dress the watermelon because the dressing after a while starts to break down the watermelon. This is FORKING DELICIOUS….You will want to make it over and over again. Portions are hard to judge. It’s say that it might make about 4 servings for most people.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 personal size watermelon, rind removed, cut into bite sized pieces

1 cucumber, skin and seeds removed, cut in slices

1/3 cup white miso paste

1/3 cup pure honey

1 Tablespoon ground fresh ginger (substitute 1 teaspoon ground dried ginger)

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 cup feta crumbled or diced

togarashi spice blend to taste

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup fresh basil – torn or chiffonade (original recipe calls for fresh mint. you can use mint or basil or even 1/2 and 1/2 would be delicious)

In a small mixing bowl mix together the miso paste, honey, ginger, vinegar, and oil. Taste and adjust to your taste. Set to the side.

In a large mixing bowl combine the watermelon and cucumber. Top with feta, togarashi and black pepper to taste. Top with fresh herb and sunflower seeds. Add dressing to taste.

A special THANKS to chef Shota Nakajima for his Forking Amazing recipe so that I could come up with this.