Melon & Tomato Salad with Cilantro Nước Chấm

I feel like August is one big preparation for the end of summer. And if you can’t tell by my latest blog posts, I’m really going to miss all the summer produce. And that’s where this Tomato & Melon Salad with Cilantro Nước Chấm comes in. It’s sweet, salty, crisp and refreshing, and it just reminds me how good raw fruits can be if you give them some extra love. This is the perfect thing to bring to a picnic, a summer party or a Labor Day gathering. It’s bright and creative, but relatively low-effort for the beautiful result you get.

This recipe uses a cilantro Nước Chấm, which means traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce. I of course used a bit of flexibility when making this recipe, but I wanted to credit the original source and culture of the recipe. Nước Chấm serves as an all-encompassing word for dipping sauces in Vietnamese cuisine, and they typically combine sweet, sour and salty flavors. The sauce I made most closely resembles Nước mắm pham, which is a fish sauce based dipping sauce. To date it remains one of my favorite ways to add flavor to recipes, it’s bright an savory without being overpowering, and I love using it in multiple ways.

Ingredients for this recipe

The ingredients for this are fresh and simple – here is everything you’ll need:

• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2-3 small birds eye chilies, seeds removed and finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1″ knob fresh ginger, minced
• 1 lime for juicing
• 1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/2 of a medium canary melon or honeydew melon
• 6 small to medium tomatoes of assorted colors
• 1 small persian cucumber
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, for topping
• 1 tbsp chili oil, for topping

How to make this summer melon salad

First, start by building the sauce. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and juice from the lime. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Add in the cilantro, chilies, garlic and ginger and whisk again. Add more rice vinegar if the sauce needs to thin out a bit more. Set this aside – the longer it sits the better it gets!

Deseed and thinly slice the melon – how you slice is up to you but I like thin long strips. Quarter the tomatoes and very thinly slice the cucumber. You want the cucumbers so thin you can almost see through them. Toss everything in the bowl with the dressing.

Use clean hands to toss the salad and combine. Clean hands, pure hearts, can’t lose.

To plate, scatter everything on a large plate in a thin layer, let the colors come through! Sprinkle with sesame seeds and dot with chili oil. Enjoy!

Need a good substitute for fish sauce?

I often say nothing can copy the distinct, umami flavor that fish sauce gives, but if you are vegetarian, I recommend using tamari or soy sauce to help replicate the strong saltiness that this sauce needs!

Looking for other salad recipes?

Here are a few equally refreshing options!

And that’s it for this Melon & Tomato Salad with Cilantro Nước Chấm!

If you make this, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you.