Melón con Pesto

Melón con jamón is a traditional Spanish dish, pairing the rich, salty Jamón Iberico (a cured ham originating from Iberia), with pieces of fresh, sweet melon.
Problem is, I went vegan a years back, and so this dish was absolutely off-limits! Fortunately after a romantic meal in Sevilla, we were inspired to make our own version of this traditional recipe. By replacing the jamón with basil pesto, you get a herbaceous twist on an old classic, and in our opinion, its even better than the original 😉
Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Mediterranean
Servings 4
Prep Time 30 minutes

Ingredients
  

Melon

  • 1/2 a Large Melon cut into large pieces

Pesto

  • 2 cups Basil leaves
  • 1/2 cup Pine nuts
  • 1/2 cup Olive oil
  • 1/2 Lemon juiced
  • 3 tbsp Nutritional yeast or more to taste
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Garnish

  • A handful of Rocket
  • Dried Cranberries
  • Walnuts chopped roughly

Instructions
 

Pesto

  • Gently toast the pine nuts until slightly golden.
  • Add all of the pesto ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth.
  • Taste for seasoning, adding more salt, lemon, nutritional yeast or oil where necessary.

Assembly

  • Spread some of the pesto on to the plate in lines, this helps the melon stay put on the plate.
  • Loosely toss some rocket around the plate.
  • Place melon slices on the lines of pesto.
  • Top the melon slices with drops of pesto, sprinkle them with cranberries and walnuts, and more rocket if desired!

Notes

Keyword Fruity

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