Balsamic Watermelon Feta Salad
This salad is jam packed with everything cheesy, salty, juicy sweet and more – sweet watermelon, creamy/salty feta, pungent onion slices, crunchy almonds, and tangy dressing. It’s SO good!
Nothing screams summer like a big bowl of ice-cold watermelon… especially when it’s cut perfectly. But how about a chunky watermelon salad?! In the past, watermelon chunks have never lasted long enough in our house for us to do anything but eat them straight from the fridge. We eat watermelon like it’s going out of style. Well I guess technically it does go out of style because it’s only good for about two months out of the year. If you get your watermelon from the grocery store, you are seriously missing out. Farmers’ Markets are where it’s at.
But this past weekend we got a watermelon so big I was about to portion some off to try in a salad. One word: WHYHAVEIWAITEDSOLONG. It has everything you love about watermelons taken to a whole new level. This was one of those photo-shoots that I could not wait to finish so that I could inhale it right there and then. (Literally.)
Fresh spinach and arugula, super sweet watermelon, crunchy almonds, and the feta. Oh my gosh the feta makes the salad. Oh, the salty, creamy tang that makes my tastebuds go wild. Seriously. Don’t judge until you try it – I promise you will have the same reaction.
The dressing is a mixture of balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, salt & peppers, and olive oil. Simply delicious! It has the perfect amount of flavor to make a nice accompaniment to the salad without overpowering the whole thing.
This makes an awesome side dish is any meal, a perfect light lunch, or a light dinner. If you are making this for a crowd, keep in mind that watermelon tends to make other ingredients soggy because of how much water it contains. So assemble the salad right before serving to make sure your watermelon is cold and the other ingredients stay crisp.
Balsamic Watermelon Feta Salad
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup olive oil
For the salad:
- 1 large watermelon, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 6 cups fresh spinach or arugula
- 1 red onion onion thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup feta cheese crumbled
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the vinegars, salt, pepper, and whisk until salt is dissolved. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, a few drops at a time. Add in the chopped basil, taste, and adjust seasonings.
- In a large bowl, combine the melon, arugula/spinach, onion, and feta. Pour the dressing over the melon mixture and toss gently until everything is coated and evenly mixed.
- To serve, divide salad among individual plates and garnish with slivered almonds and extra basil leaves.
Yummy! This sounds fantastic, you should add it to my linkup! There are lots of great meatless recipes on there, and this would fit in perfectly….and help others to eat better 🙂
The ingredients say basil, but the directions say mint. Which should I use? They both sound like they would be wonderful in this salad!
Oops! Thanks for catching that! We originally had mint instead of basil, but we liked the salad with basil more than mint. 🙂
Love this salad! But we tweaked it a little – we substituted seedless cucumber for the red onion – still get the crunch but get to avoid “onion breath.” We also dropped the red wine vinegar when we added the cucumber – mostly because we forgot to add it the first time 🙂 but we liked the end result.