Mojito Watermelon Fruit Salad Recipe

Mojito Watermelon, the best fruit salad recipe EVER from Chef Raymond Naranjo at Angel Fire Resort

This will be your new go-to dish for potlucks, parties, and holidays...and breakfast. Well, probably not right before heading to work.

Oh, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Christmas already? Even better. We're celebrating wine festival season! I've even brought you home a souvenir this time.

Here in New Mexico, we're spoiled with stunning scenery and a unique culinary heritage, which result in some of the best wine festivals in the USA. There's something for everyone with the Wine & Wagyu Weekend in gorgeous Angel Fire, followed by the Taos Summer Wine Festival in the prestigious Taos Ski Valley.

Calling all Instagrammers. These fields of flowers are just growing on the side of the road in Angel Fire, NM. They have the world's most beautiful wine festival setting without even trying.

If I had to choose, I'd say Angel Fire is best if you're a cowboy at heart and Taos is best if you're more of a free-spirited hippie. I'd be crushed to miss either though, so think of me as a Chevy Volt driver who occasionally exclaims "Yee-haw!"

(And often belts out my favorite Broadway showtunes. As far as I know, there's no food and wine festival for that yet, which is a shame. Hamilton Ham! Waitress Wagyu! An American Cheese In Paris!)

Mark your calendars for a visit to NM in August, 2020. Yes, even you over there on the other side of the country. These wine events are worth traveling for! I'll be featuring photos and highlights of the Angel Fire Wine & Wagyu Weekend and the Taos Summer Wine Festival over the next few weeks.

To get us started, the host of the Wine & Wagyu Weekend, Angel Fire Resort, has gone above and beyond and honored my email request for a very special recipe. Everyone loved the wagyu beef (plenty of cooking and pairing tips for that in the coming blog posts), but the most delicious thing I ate the entire weekend was a salad. Yes, a salad! And all the guests I spoke to agreed!

It's Angel Fire's Mojito Watermelon fruit salad, topped with a little alcohol and created by Executive Chef Raymond Naranjo. He provided a cooking demonstration during the event featuring red chile and molecular gastronomy - outside! He's pretty amazing.

Make this refreshing recipe yourself for now, but promise you'll join me for the real thing next time.

Mojito Watermelon Recipe
The best fruit salad recipe EVER from Chef Raymond Naranjo at Angel Fire Resort

1 watermelon, cubed
2 cucumbers, diced
1 cup of lime juice
2 cups of agave nectar (or 2 cups of honey, if you don't have agave nectar)
1 ounce of pureed mint (approximately 25 sprigs of mint)
1 tsp salt
1 ounce of rum

Mix everything except the rum in a large bowl. Pour the rum over the top and serve chilled.

The best thing I ate (or drank) at a 3-day food and wine festival was a fruit salad. See my plate? I ate Mojito Watermelon with my dinner, then filled half my plate with it again for dessert. And there was chocolate! That's how much you're going to love this recipe.

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