Georgina Hayden’s recipe for grilled watermelon breakfast salad

Watermelon is the best summer breakfast, and here’s a recipe for when you want to be a bit fancy with it. Grilling watermelon is always a great idea: it becomes dense, more intense in flavour and caramelised – heavenly in sweet or savoury dishes. Make this when you want to eat it; don’t leave it to sit around as the melon becomes watery. If you’re not into the idea of grilled watermelon (no judgment, I know hot melon is not for everyone), then make this with fresh watermelon chunks. It’ll still be excellent.

Serves 4
watermelon 1kg
sesame seeds 2 tbsp, a mix of white and black will be nice
nigella seeds 1 tsp
feta 150g
Greek yoghurt 100g
mint 4 sprigs
pistachios 70g
honey 2-3 tbsp

Cut away the watermelon rind, then cut the flesh into cubes of about 3cm. In a large frying pan on a medium-high heat, toast the sesame and nigella seeds until the sesame seeds are pale golden and everything is fragrant. Remove from the pan to a bowl and leave them to cool. Mix the feta with the yoghurt until just smooth. I do this with a stick blender, but do not over-mix, or it will go thin and liquidy. Stir in the cooled seeds, then spread on a platter. Pick the leaves from the mint sprigs and finely shred with a knife. Sprinkle a third over the feta-yoghurt. Roughly chop the pistachios and keep to one side.

Place the large frying pan back on a medium heat. You can also use a griddle. Fry the watermelon, in batches if needed, for 4 minutes on one side, till it looks softened but toasted on the underside. Drizzle with 1 or 2 tablespoons of honey, turn once and fry for another 4 minutes. Because of the honey, this side may char a little more.

Place the melon on the feta-yoghurt spread, and drizzle over any juices from the pan and more honey to taste. Scatter over the pistachios and remaining mint, and serve immediately.

From Greekish by Georgina Hayden (Bloomsbury, £26)