Thai Watermelon Radish Salad

Thank you again to my darling brother (if you’re reading this, which my guess is you’re not) for the subscription to Food and Wine – so tantalizing and inspiring!

Way too hot to cook, don’t want to serve just a normal salad. Enter: Thai-style Radish and Watermelon Salad. Spicy, sweet, refreshing – perfect for the heat! Here’s how it went down:

The Dressing:
– Lime juice
– Fish sauce (substitute this for vegan version)
– Cayenne and red pepper flakes (they said sambal oelek which I don’t have)
– Fresh grated ginger
– Salt and pepper
The Salad:
– Cubed watermelon
– Thinly-sliced radishes
– Scallions (my beautiful ones from the strawberry soup were on their last legs, but good enough!)
– Serrano chili (they said hot red, but I couldn’t find any and this worked)
– Mint and basil – which I couldn’t find at the store, and my poor sad basil plant wasn’t quite up to the challenge. We used what we could, but it was agreed that the addition of mint would have been a good one.

Also can I just say that also in F&W there was a commentary by a chef saying that recipes shouldn’t include amounts (or something like that) because it should all be according to taste and experience? That was pretty validating.