Tasty and Fast Watermelon and Feta Salad Recipe

Our watermelon feta salad is made with a few simple ingredients, but its flavor profile is complex. It’s sweet, savory, salty, and zesty enough to satisfy a plethora of cravings, and it’s a fantastic main course or side dish. Bring it to your next summer BBQ, or just chill out and enjoy it at home. 

Let’s walk through the recipe from start to finish, covering all the necessary ingredients, preparation steps, and more.

What Ingredients Do I Need?

To make watermelon salad, you need the following ingredients:

• Watermelon. One of the highlights of this delicious dish is the crunch of fresh watermelon. The recipe calls for 250 grams of seedless melon, which you’ll chop into cubes and disperse evenly throughout the salad. While you technically could get away with using seeded watermelon, we don’t recommend it – finding seeds in your salad isn’t fun.

• Arugula Lettuce. Baby arugula greens are packed with nutrients. In fact, this type of lettuce is just about the most nutrient-dense veggie you can put in your salad. You need two handfuls of baby arugula for this recipe.

• Feta Cheese. Chunks of crumbled feta give this recipe some extra richness, plus a boost of protein. If you’re lactose intolerant or concerned about cholesterol or saturated fat content, feel free to use goat cheese instead. Either way, 40 grams is an ideal amount of cheese to use.

• Pine Nuts. These nuts are packed with healthy fats and protein, and they taste great! Pour just a tablespoon into your mixing bowl, and you’re good to go. If you’re using whole nuts, make sure to chop them up into small pieces before you toss them in.

• Red Wine Vinegar. This simple ingredient adds some refreshing acidity to the salad. However, the red wine vinegar can easily be swapped out for another dressing, such as balsamic vinegar, a vinaigrette, or just a drizzle of olive oil. You only need a few ounces of dressing per serving.

• Extras, including red onion slices, cucumbers, bell pepper, lemon juice, lime juice, a bit of honey, or some fresh mint leaves, pair perfectly with this recipe. How complex you want your ingredient list to get when you’re making variations on this recipe is up to you.  

Through the Recipe, Step by Step

Let’s get started with making this mouthwatering salad.

Step One: Chop Up Your Watermelon

Weigh out 250 grams of seedless watermelon on a food scale. Then, take a sharp knife out and place the watermelon on a cutting board. Use the knife to carefully chop the watermelon up into small cubes. Aim for pieces about the size of a cheese cube – not too big, not too small.

Step Two: Pre-Dress The Bowl

Take out a large bowl, salt, pepper, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Use a whisk or a fork to mix these ingredients together in the bowl. 

Step Three: Add Your Ingredients and Toss

Using the same large bowl, add in your watermelon cubes, two handfuls of arugula leaves, feta crumbles, and pine nuts, as well as any other extra ingredients you’ve chosen to use. Take the bowl in your hands and gently toss the salad, jostling the ingredients around so they’re evenly mixed and coated in the oil, vinegar, and spices.

Once the salad is tossed, take a quick bite to make sure the flavors are how you want them. And, of course, take a photo of your finished creation and post it on your Instagram. 

Step Four: Serve

With a pair of tongs or a large spoon, take the salad and portion half out into one small bowl and half into another. Leftovers don’t keep particularly well in the fridge, but it’s so delicious that you won’t have to worry about that.  

Tips for Leveling Up Your Salad Game

If you’re not super confident in your ability to make salads, that’s about to change. Follow these tips to take your salad-making skills up a notch.

Tip Number One: Invest in Good Equipment

Making salad is a chore when you don’t have the tools you need. 

In most cases, the kitchen utilities that you’ll turn to the most while making salad are the following:

• A cutting board. You’ll use this board to prepare nearly all the ingredients that go into your salads. Chopping up fruits, vegetables, nuts, and more requires a clean, durable surface, so don’t be afraid to invest in a high-quality board.

• A sharp knife: You can’t have a good cutting board without a good knife. Most of the ingredients you’ll add to your salads will be relatively easy to cut, but your knife still needs to be sharp and durable. Chopping up tons of veggies can take a toll on a low-quality knife over time, so it’s definitely worth it to shell out a few extra bucks for a great one.

• A large mixing bowl. This is one tool that you’ll be using every time you make a salad. Combining your ingredients and serving the finished product requires a good vessel, so make sure your mixing bowl is to your liking. You can use a bowl made of plastic, ceramic material, stainless steel, or something else – it’s up to you.

• Tongs. This utensil is ideal for serving salads with ease. You should never have to rely on the utensils that you’d eat with to get salad onto plates and into bowls.

• A zester. This might be an unexpected entry on our list, but you’d be surprised at how useful it is. A zester allows you to extract flavor from lemons, limes, and other foods with surgical precision, allowing you to make use of them in your recipes. 

Tip Number Two: Presentation Is Everything

One of the most fun steps in the process of making a salad is putting on the finishing touches. That’s when you make each bowl look like a work of art, mixing the ingredients evenly to create a colorful masterpiece. 

No matter who you’re making the salad for, it’s always worth the effort to go the extra mile and spend some time on plating and presentation. You won’t regret it, especially when you make this watermelon feta salad recipe.

Want More Recipes and Cooking Tips?

If you’re always looking for something new to make, we’ve got you covered. Head over to our cooking page for more recipes, or visit our blog for helpful cooking tips and inspiration.

Once you’ve decided which recipes you’d like to make, we’ll help you make those dreams a reality. By optimizing the perfect grocery list, allowing you to add anything else you may need, and setting up delivery or pick-up, we’ll make sure the cooking process is as easy as possible.