A Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese is one of the most refreshing side dishes for summer. Made with hydrating cucumber, salty Feta cheese, herbs, red onion and a simple 3 ingredient vinaigrette, it will be the star of all your summer get-togethers!
I included instructions to turn it into a red, white and blue salad or into a patriotic flag salad for summer holiday celebrations, too.
Easy Watermelon Feta Salad
- This recipe is one of my favorites for summer! It’s very quick and easy to put together, tastes delicious and is simply divine.
- There’s nothing better than the refreshing taste and hydrating ingredients in this salad on a hot summer day.
- Just add blueberries to turn it into a red, white and blue salad – or let the kids help arrange the ingredients as a “flag” for a fun holiday activity!
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
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.
How to make a Watermelon Feta Salad
assemble ingredients add dressing
1. Assemble the ingredients. Prep all of the salad ingredients and whisk the dressing together.
2. Add dressing. Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and gently toss.
3. Chill. The salad tastes best cold. Keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to serve it. If you need to serve it right away, keep the watermelon refrigerated before slicing it.
Recipe variations
This is a great recipe to turn into a dish for patriotic summer holidays – Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day are all perfect for this!
Flag salad
You can easily turn this salad into a flag salad – you can opt to skip the cucumbers (they are missing from most watermelon flag salad recipes I’ve seen around), but I really enjoy them in the dish so I leave them in.
You may need a little less watermelon than the original recipe calls for to arrange your flag. I still cut it up and just serve it on the side.
- I cut out little cucumber stars after slicing them and arrange them in the bottom of a rectangular dish (mine is around 2 quart) over the herbs and red onion.
- Then I arrange the watermelon and cheese in stripes on top.
- Finally, the small square in the top left corner I fill with blueberries.
- Drizzle the dressing on top and your flag salad is complete!
cut out stars from cucumber slices arrange in dish with herbs and onion arrange watermelon and feta as stripes add blueberries to corner
Red, white and blue salad
If you’re short on time and need a quick, zero fuss option – you can simply add a cup of fresh blueberries to my “normal” watermelon salad recipe in the recipe card below. 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.
PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.
Printable recipe
Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese
Recipe details
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).
Notes
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.
- See recipe post for step by step photos to turn this into a patriotic flag salad.
Carol Cox says
Instead of parsley I used cilantro and added dry finely ground basil to the dressing as well as fresh, Also good in addition to the Feta is some blue cheese. I will be making this again tomorrow for the Fourth of July ( with some added blueberries) 4th time in the last 6 weeks. You think we like it????
Nora says
Haha, that’s some serious salad dedication, Carol! Glad you enjoy the recipe so much, and thanks for sharing your suggestions. I hope you had a great 4th of July!
Shirley says
Great refreshing salad, I don’t put in the cucumbers but may try it with them
Terese says
Wonderful! It was a hit at the party I brought it to. Appreciated the way the page was laid out and being able to print the recipe.
Nora says
I’m so glad, Terese! And thank you for the lovely feedback, I appreciate it.