Watermelon Salad with Feta

Looking for something to make with all of leftover watermelon? Try this watermelon salad with feta recipe. It just takes minutes to make and it’s full of sweet, tangy and crunchy flavor with a cool taste of fresh mint. It’s great for summer parties and picnics too!

You might also like this watermelon cosmopolitan drink recipe!

I started liking watermelon recently since I made my Ninja Creami watermelon sorbet. Unfortunately I always have lots of leftover watermelon and so I decided to make this watermelon salad with feta recipe.

My sister in law liked the combination of the two so I tried to make version and was surprised at how good it was! The sweet watermelon is so juicy and goes great feta cheese which is creamy and tangy. I added some crunchy red onions, fresh mint and chopped walnuts along with with a simple dressing to make a tasty summer side dish.

This is a great salad to bring to a picnic or summer party during watermelon season because it takes very little time and only a handful of ingredients. You can eliminate the walnuts if you don’t like nuts but if you do, give it a try. I’m so happy I found another way to use leftover watermelon.

Recipe ingredients I used and substitutions.

The simple ingredients I used for this recipe were watermelon chunks, feta cheese, red onion, fresh mint and walnuts. The dressing was just red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and ground black pepper.

Seedless Watermelon Cubes
This is obvious the star of the recipe and you don’t want to substitute it. Though this might work with other melons like cantaloup or honeydew. You do want to use a seedless one though or take out all the black seeds by hand which is not fun.

Greek Feta Cheese
The salty feta cheese is also pretty important to the recipe but you could also use blue cheese, goat cheese, blue cheese or some shaved parmesan or asiago cheese. However feta is by far the best option because it’s a salty cheese and goes great with the sweet flavor of the melon. It’s that tasty sweet and salty flavor combination.

Red Onion
I like the taste of raw onion in my salads but if you don’t, you could try these pickled red onions which have less bite or something sweet like a vidalia onion. You could also use regular white or yellow onions as well.

Fresh Mint Leaves
Fresh mint goes great with both the feta cheese and watermelon, but if you don’t have any, you could try other fresh herbs like fresh basil, parsley or even cilantro. You could also eliminate it if you want. But only use fresh herbs not dried.

Walnuts
I love the taste of cheese and nuts in my salads so I decided to throw some walnuts at the last minute. It’s not necessary for this salad to be good however you might really like it. You can also use pecans but other nuts don’t really go as well.

Dressing
I used red wine vinegar for this recipe but you could also use a milder one like apple cider vinegar or even a white wine vinegar. Also I would not use an extra virgin olive oil as the you want to have a light flavor with the dressing. I just used a milder flavored one.

How to make watermelon salad with feta cheese.

This is really a simple salad to make as it’s just a bit of chopping and tossing.

Step 1: Chop the fresh watermelon into bite size pieces or chunks. If there are any stray black seeds take them out as you are chopping. Also slice the onions very thin and cut the block of feta cheese into small bite size pieces.

Lastly mince the mint leaves and set those aside.

Step 2: Place the watermelon cubes, onion, mint and cheese in a salad bowl and set aside. Get a small bowl and add the vinegar, oil, salt and black pepper and whisk to combine. Pour over the salad and gently mix together being careful with the cheese so it doesn’t break up.

Step 3: Refrigerate until ready to serve. Chop up the walnuts and scatter on top when ready to serve. The walnuts are optional so if you are not a fan of nuts you can skip them. However I think the give a great texture and crunch to the salad and goes great with the cheese.

Store leftover watermelon and feta salad in an airtight container. There will probably be some liquid that accumulates from the juice if you have leftovers. You can drain it if you want. I would give it bit of a mix first then drain. Please scroll down to view the printable recipe.

RECIPE TIP: Another thing I tried was to add some arugula to the leftovers. I had a big container of it and wanted to use it up. It was a delicious addition to the combination of watermelon and feta because of the peppery flavor of the arugula leaves. So if you have some on hand you might want give it a try. You can just added it so a portion to see if you like it. 

And that is all there is to it. I would eat this as is for a refreshing summer lunch or as a side dish with these everything seasoned turkey burgers on the grill or chicken kebabs in the air fryer for dinner. This would also be a delicious salad to take to a picnic or summer party.

More cooling and delicious summer salads and side dishes.

I have so many summer side dishes on this blog since I’ve been blogging for over 10 years! Here are few of my favorite healthy recipes that are cold and refreshing on hot summer days.

• cold cucumber avocado soup
• shopska salad – cucumber and tomato salad with fresh mozzarella
• Greek zucchini noodle salad
• pasta salad with creamy dressing or mediterranean kale pasta salad
• rainbow corn salad or southwest bean salad

Well this watermelon feta salad recipe was a quick one for you today. It was something new for me since I’ve just started like watermelon more. I hope you like this salad as much as I did. 

The sweet melon with the tangy cheese is a great flavor combination and try the nuts. It’s just another layer of flavor and texture. Enjoy!