The Spicy Watermelon Salad Our Editors Are Obsessed With

Crash Bon Appétit’s Slack and you’ll find plenty of photos of what our editors are cooking at home. It’s usually a nice jumble of recipes—corn and pork stir-fry, chocolate chip cookies, homemade pizza—complete with heart-eye emojis. But every once in a while, one dish emerges from the woodwork and pops up here, there, everywhere. This happened with senior Test Kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s Hot Honey Salmon, to which our editors sung their highest praises. But naturally, a new recipe has swooped in: senior Test Kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk’s Watermelon Som Tam Salad.

I’ve made it four times. Social media manager Cristina Correa has made it twice. Director of cooking Emma Laperruque has made it once with imminent plans for the next. And this was all before the recipe even published! A savory Thai-style dressing, often put toward unripe papaya, sends juicy watermelon to new heights. It’s what I’ll be eating all summer long.

“When I spied a honking melon at the supermarket, I simply had no choice,” Emma says. “Jesse has you combine ingredients—lime halves, brown sugar, sliced chiles—in a zip-top bag and whack them with a rolling pin, a step that made my baby laugh to no end. For full effect, I had to say “boom!” every time I hit the bag, something you could also try, or not.” Pounding the acid, sugar, and heat means you get amplified flavor.

Since it all comes together in a zip-top bag, you can tote it off to a zillion different places. (It’s the perfect travel companion.) I’ve brought it to barbeques, a bachelorette weekend, even the beach. As for my colleagues, they’ve prepped it for a relaxing dinner at home. “I made it for my mom who was visiting from out of town to show off my cooking chops,” Cristina says.

And with watermelons overtaking the markets right now, there’s no better time to join in. As Jesse says, “Our staff has been making it in early spring, when watermelon tasted its worst, so it gives me hope for readers, now that watermelon actually tastes like something.” If this salad inspired repeat meals with less-than-stellar fruit, imagine what it’ll do for the rest of the season.