Step 1

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut off and discard the skin and white pith from the watermelon, leaving you with about 1½kg flesh. Cut this into 2cm-thick wedges, arrange them on a large platter and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Step 2

For the lime syrup, put the lime zest, sugar, vanilla bean paste and 50ml water in a small saucepan on a medium heat, bring to a simmer, then cook for five minutes, until bubbling and slightly syrupy. Take off the heat, leave to cool for 15 minutes, then stir in the lime juice.

Step 3

Meanwhile, put all the ingredients for the spiced salt in a mortar and lightly grind until the salt is fine.

Step 4

To assemble, drizzle half the syrup all over the watermelon, scatter over all of the herbs and spoon over the olive oil. Sprinkle a quarter of the spiced salt mix on top and serve with the remaining salt and syrup in two bowls on the side.