Our Favorite French-Inspired Melon Salad for Summer

For a fun lunch or appetizer, my go-to is a summer melon salad with ham, basil, and shallots. It’s colorful and delicious, and so easy you can barely even call it a recipe! Isn’t that what we want in the summer? I serve it on a white Apilco platter so the colors of the salad really shine!

This salad has many variations. Some make it a little more French, and other variations a little more Italian. You can’t go wrong either way! It’s one of our favorite salads, and it’s a gorgeous salad with the color of cantaloupe melon, basil, and ham. It makes a perfect starter, side dish, or the perfect addition to an apéro. You can read more about our French-inspired casual appetizer party here on our sister site, Most Lovely Things.

You could even serve this salad as a main course with a sliced baguette and salted French butter. The flavors will amaze you!

What are the main ingredients you’ll need to make this summer melon salad?

1. A good cantaloupe melon or two
2. Thin slices of ham like jambon de Bayonne
3. Sherry vinegar
4. Balsamic glaze
5. Good olive oil
6. Fresh basil Leaves (whole)
7. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prepare your melon ahead

When serving this salad to guests, I buy a few melons to ensure I have found a ripe, flavorful cantaloupe melon. I love it when I can buy it already sliced in half so I can see the color, but lately, I have not seen melons cut like this at the grocery store. I cut melon slices, trim the rind, and place them in an airtight container a few hours ahead of when I am ready to serve. I dislike storing the sliced melon on the serving platter because cantaloupe is 90% water.

Also, did you know that you should store your melon on the counter and not in the refrigerator? Storing in the refrigerator will halt the melon’s ripening. When you buy a melon at the grocery store, it usually needs to ripen a bit at home. If you need a ripe melon, look for one that feels heavier than you would expect and has a deep, dull sound when you give it a knock with your hand.

Assembling the summer melon salad

1. If you’ve stored your sliced ripe melon in the refrigerator, ensure you allow it to come to room temperature so you have sweet melon.
2. Then, wrap each slice in a piece of jambon de Bayonne. Arrange on a platter.
3. Sprinkle with whole basil leaves. I look for the tiny leaves in my garden and snip them off one by one.
4. Slice a shallot very thin and sprinkle on top of the melon wrapped in ham.
5. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
6. In a small bowl, make the dressing with extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar, and drizzle over the fresh salad.
7. Drizzle over a little balsamic vinegar like a glaze.
8. Serve right away with a baguette and salted French butter.

This is one of our favorite recipes because it’s so good, colorful, and easy to make. It is versatile and can be served as a main course for lunch with bread and butter or as a delicious starter.

Watch this short video to see how easy it is to put it together for a colorful and delicious lunch.

Variations and substitutions for making this simple salad

Well, you definitely want to start with a juicy melon, but then you can substitute jambon de Bayonne for prosciutto, which is easier to find. You could add creamy mozzarella or Burrata. A fresh avocado would also be nice. If you didn’t have shallots, a red onion would work too. But if it’s your first time making it, I would stay true to the French way of making it. 

This recipe was inspired by the one in the book In Love with Paris—Recipes and stories from the most romantic city in the world by Anne-Katrin Weber.

Here are a few more fun French recipes

• Citron pressé (French cafe-style lemonade)
• French ratatouille galette
• Classic French carrot salad