Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese

Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese

Watermelon Cucumber Feta Salad is a bright and colourful salad, perfect for summer days! Using everyday ingredients, this salad takes only minutes to prepare and works well at BBQs picnics and lunches.

Ingredients

• 3 cups cubed watermelon
• 1 medium cucumber diced
• 8 oz Feta cheese diced (crumbled Feta is usually sold in 6-oz packets, which is perfectly fine to use if you prefer)
• ½ cup chopped fresh herbs I used a mix of basil, mint and parsley
• ½ cup thinly sliced red onion or more to taste
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon runny honey
• ¼ teaspoon salt or more to taste

Instructions

Add watermelon, cucumber, feta cheese, herbs and red onion to a shallow salad dish (I use a 3 quart ceramic casserole dish – looks nice and the Feta doesn’t get as squished like it would in a deep salad bowl).

Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, honey and salt until fully combined. Pour over salad ingredients, then gently toss.

Cover and chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve (best eaten within 1-2 hours, see notes below for longer).

Ingredient notes

Feta cheese: Feel free to use goat’s cheese in place of the Feta cheese. I prefer to buy a chunk of Feta and dice it, but for even quicker prep, feel free to use a tub of crumbled Feta.

Red wine vinegar: For a fun twist, this salad is also delicious with lime juice in place of the vinegar.

Red onion: I have made this salad with white onion before, and it’s just as delicious. While I love the kick of the onion in this recipe, feel free to leave it out if you’re not a fan.

Fresh herbs: Use soft herbs such as basil, mint and/or parsley. Fresh oregano is also delicious.

Red, white, blue: Add a cup of fresh blueberries to the salad recipe for a fun twist. My kids love it when I cut out some cucumber stars to add to the salad as well, but that’s entirely optional!

Recipe tips

Try to dice the watermelon, cucumber and Feta into roughly equally-sized cubes. It makes the salad look more attractive and also makes it easier to eat. I do around ⅓ to ½ inch cubes.

The salad ingredients start to release juices once combined with the dressing. If you want to keep it refrigerated for more than 1-2 hours before serving, I highly recommend to only add the dressing right before you’re planning to eat the salad.

I highly recommend using a shallower dish over a deep salad bowl for this recipe. The weight of the watermelon and cucumber can really push down on the other ingredients, and especially turn the Feta cheese into mush. I use a 3-quart ceramic casserole dish and it both looks nice and works really well.