Great breakfast or Sunday brunch!
A good friend pointed out that my dried, salted, watermelon fruit snack both looked and tasted just like bacon. Combined with the spiced chickpea scramble, the water melon provides a lovely hint of sweetness. But please note, if you want to serve this dish together with the watermelon you need to start the preparations one day ahead. In the dehydrator.
It is well worth it!!
The pesto is quick and easy to make. This batch of pest makes more than you really need for this dish but the left-over pesto is nice to store in the fridge and to use with many other meals!

Serves 4

¼ of a watermelon, thinly sliced (keep peel on)
Salt

Pesto:
150 ml pistachios (shelled)
200 ml basil leaves, loosely packed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ tsp salt
(optional: 1 garlic clove, minced)

Chickpea scramble:
50 ml chopped shallots
250 g canned (or soaked) chickpeas plus 4-5 tablespoons chickpea soaking water
¼ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste
(Optional: 1/2 tsp chili flakes)
Olive oil to fry in

(Optional: 200 g spinach)

(Optional: Chopped parsley, chopped dried watermelon and black, Hawaiian salt for decoration)

1. Place the watermelon slices in a dehydrator, salt and let dehydrate at 45 C overnight (longer if needed)
2. Place all ingredients for the pesto in a (mini) food processor. Run for 45 seconds.
3. Place all ingredients for the chickpea scramble in a food processor. Pulse to combine. You still want chunks, not a smooth puree.
4. In a warm sauté pan, spread out the chickpea mix and gently fry in olive oil over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes (it takes a while to achieve a texture that you can actually turn over), turn the scramble and fry another 2-3 minutes until you have some colour.
5. Add in the spinach (to the scramble). Turn a few times and then serve hot with pesto and watermelon.