Watermelon Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil

So, earlier this summer I was delighted when the great folks who publish cookbooks at HarperCollins asked me if I would take a look at some of their books, try some of their recipes and write a little piece about the recipes for their online newsletter.

Try out recipes and write about them, you ask? Why, yes I will! And I get to check out some new cookbooks as part of the whole thing? Awesome!

Then the first cookbook arrived. LIVING RAW FOOD, by Salma Melngailis.

Wait a sec. Raw food? I am a grill it, saute it, deep-fry it, bake it kinda girl. I'm all for being healthy, but I am into all of this for the taste, and while I love my sushi and a little steak tartare here and there, in my experience raw and tastes-good don't usually go together. But, I am a woman of my word and so I opened up this cookbook to see what I could find. And oh my goodness, I stand corrected. I won't go into all of it because I do want you to read my ARTICLE (link is below, how convenient!!) but let me just say that the watermelon salad pictured above will be put on permanent rotation in my collection of summer recipes. It was a beautiful concoction of watermelon, tomatoes, cucumber, mint, parsley, avocado and (get ready) chopped jalepeno, and man, did it all work together. And it looked gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

So, here is a link to my article.

Living With Raw Food

Along with a direct link to the watermelon salad recipe.

Watermelon Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes and Basil

And you should definitely check out the other great books in the HarperCollins Summer of Books website

HarperCollins Summer of Books!

And, it just goes to show you -- you never, ever know. Raw food for everyone!!