Watermelon & endive salad with vegan feta
Watermelon + feta = ♥♥♥
Watermelon and feta is one of my all time favorite flavor combinations! There is just something so irresistible about it. The sweet, fresh and juicy watermelon contrasts the tangy, salty and creamy feta in a way that I can’t get enough of! But can this delicious combo be achieved also with vegan feta? Why yes. It most certainly can!
Vegan feta
Watermelon and feta is a delicious combo also as a vegan version, at least if you find a really good vegan feta! A brand new oat based vegan feta has just entered the market here in Finland, and I had to try it the first chance I got. Mö Kreikkalainen, (Mö “Greek”) is the first oat based vegan feta on the market here. It ticks all the boxes – it’s got that salty and creamy tangy taste AND the crumbly texture! Mö Kaurameijeri (website is in Finnish) is a vegan “creamery” run by two sisters from the Finnish countryside. This oat milk based “feta” is their newest product and there’s a lot of buzz around it 🙂 For a reason!
I’m not a vegan, but I love to use as much plant based products as possible. I’m always on the lookout for new vegan alternatives to test, whatever they may be! I haven’t had so much luck yet with vegan cheeses, although I’d love to use less animal based products also in this category. Now my very short list of delicious vegan cheese options has however grown by one! This vegan feta literally left me craving for more.
Vegan “cheese”
I never really expect any vegan products to taste exactly like animal based ones. I think it’s unnecessary an unrealistic, and you end up disappointed if you do! Instead, I prefer to focus on the flavor. It doesn’t need to remind me of something animal based. It just needs to taste good, period! If a product is close in taste, texture and usability with something I enjoy in animal based products, it’s simply a bonus. Having a plant based alternative to animal based products makes it easier to pick it and use it for those who aren’t yet familiar with vegan cooking. Or that’s how I see it 🙂 Mö Kreikkalainen happens to be one of these rare vegan products that really comes close to real feta. It’s got both the flavor profile and the texture, and I’ve heard it also behaves well when heated! I have yet to try that myself but so far, I’m impressed.
Watermelon & endive salad + vegaN feta
We mainly eat watermelon feta salad only during watermelon season, which is not right now. I couldn’t however resist tasting this new vegan cheese in my favorite feta dish. So, I turned a blind eye on myself and bought a piece of watermelon for this ultimate vegan feta taste test 😀 To balance off my off season purchase, I added in some in season endive. Endive has a wonderful bitterness that goes very well with feta! I also threw in some radishes, and finished the salad off with finger lime and extra virgin olive oil. Since Mö Kreikkalainen isn’t quite as salty as feta, I added in a pinch of flaky sea salt and cracked in a whole lot of black pepper. That’s all that was needed! The plate was empty in no time. I was left with such a craving for watermelon & endive salad that I had to make another plate the very same evening.
Finger lime
The Australian finger lime or caviar lime that I dressed the salad with is a rare fruit here in Finland, but I finally got my hands on a few! I ate most of the finger limes I purchased just as they are, but used about half of them in cooking. Some went into sashimi and maki rolls, and some into this salad! Oh my how delicious! If you ever get a hold of finger lime, I highly recommend trying it. The price is likely high but I think it was totally worth it. Finger lime is filled with tiny juicy pearls that burst in your mouth as you chew on them. The flavor is similar to lime, but less acidic and more complex, in my opinion. Finger limes come in lots of different colors, and they really are one of the most photogenic fruits I’ve ever seen! If you want to see finger lime “caviar” in action, check out this Instagram Reel I made!
Finger lime aka lime caviar is a rare treat here in Finland. If you find it, I recommend trying it! I’ve heard it also freezes well.
Watermelon & endive salad + vegan feta = ♥
If you haven’t found a good vegan feta on the market and don’t live in Finland so you could try the Mö Kreikkalainen, I’d recommend using almond feta in this recipe! There’s a good recipe for it for example on My Berry Forest website 🙂
Watermelon & endive salad with vegan feta
Ingredients
- 2 endives
- ¼ big watermelon (about 1 kg before peeling)
- 250 g vegan feta
- 100 g radishes
- 1 small bunch of chives (or 1 scallion, green part)
- freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- flakey sea salt, to taste
- 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 finger lime / lime
Optional:
- 1 segment pomelo
Instructions
- Peel and chop the watermelon to bite sized pieces. Thinly slice the radishes. Trim off the root end of the endives and chop them to pieces of about 1 cm thickness. You can leave some of the leaves whole for presentation's sake 🙂
- Layer endive, watermelon and radishes on 2-4 plates (depending on if you're serving as an appetizer/first course/light lunch). Crumble the vegan feta on top (the Mö Kreikkalainen I'm using crumbles just like the real deal, but depending on what you use you might have to cube it).
- Finely mince some chives or scallion greens on top, and season the salad to taste with freshly cracked black pepper and flakey salt. Mix olive oil with the juice vesticles of one finger lime, or a squeeze of lime juice, and spoon on top.
- If you can't get finger lime, you can achieve a similar "pop in your mouth" citrus experience with pomelo vesicles. Remove the flesh of one slice of pomelo and break into individual strands. Sprinkle the pomelo vesicles on top of the salad and serve!
Ps. If you have a recommendation of a delicious vegan cheese, I’d love to hear it and see it’s available here!
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