Watermelon Salad features juicy bites of sweet watermelon, salty feta, bold red onions, and crunchy cucumbers! It’s all tossed together with a drizzle of balsamic reduction and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. It’s a summertime staple that’s always a huge hit at potlucks and picnics!

bowl of watermelon salad with feta

Watermelon Salad

If you want a truly show-stopping salad that disappears before any other dish at a party, you need to make this watermelon salad! The vibrant colors and flavors at play here are all thanks to mother nature, making it one of my favorite fresh recipes to serve during the hot summer months. I’m one of those people who loves to munch on watermelon all by itself, but it’s really enhanced beautifully in this easy salad recipe! Feta cheese and crisp cucumbers are the best accompaniments to the watermelon and the balsamic reduction really sends it over the top. Oh, and the mint leaves that are sprinkled on just before serving? Swoon!

Calling all fruit lovers! Get your fix with more easy salad recipes like Summer Fruit Salad, Strawberry Spinach Salad and Easy Creamy Berry Salad.

What Goes Well on Watermelon?

Watermelon pairs well with cucumber, mint, fresh lime juice, red onion, and salty feta cheese!  If you’re not a feta fan, you can swap it with goat cheese, blue cheese, burrata, or mozzarella balls in this versatile watermelon salad recipe.

How to Make Watermelon Salad

Make the reduction. Bring the balsamic vinegar and honey to a boil over medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir until thickened. Place in a separate bowl to cool before using.
Chop the ingredients. Cut your watermelon and cucumber into cubes. Slice the onion. Place all fresh ingredients into a large salad bowl.
Top it off. Sprinkle in the feta cheese, squeeze lime juice all over, and add a pinch of salt. Mix until combined.
Garnish. Sprinkle fresh mint leaves across the top of the salad.
Enjoy! Serve the fruit salad immediately or place it in the fridge for a few hours.

ingredients for watermelon salad on a white board

Storing Watermelon Salad

You can store your watermelon feta salad in an airtight container for 1-2 days. Just keep in mind that the longer the salad sits, the more liquid is released, so you don’t want to prep it too far ahead of time.

Ingredient Notes for Watermelon Salad

Red Onion – You can make this onion a little less potent if you’d like! Slice it up and let the slices soak in water for 15 minutes. Gently pat dry with paper towels and toss into the salad bowl.
Fresh Mint – While this salad does travel very well, the mint leaves don’t! If you let the fresh mint leaves sit on top of the salad for too long, they’ll begin to brown and wilt. Avoid that by topping the salad with the mint leaves just before serving so they’re nice and fresh.
Honey – For the best flavor, try to get your hands on a bottle of local organic honey. The cheaper stuff in plastic bottles from the grocery store will lend sweetness to the reduction, but not that deep honey flavor that really makes it delicious.
Lime Juice – It’s so very important to only use freshly squeezed lime juice if possible! The bottled juice from concentrate lends a noticeably artificial flavor to fresh recipes like this one. After all, if everything else is fresh, why shouldn’t the lime juice be?
Watermelon – This salad recipe calls for 5 cups of cubed watermelon. That’s about half of a small watermelon. You can also usually find some already chopped and ready to go in the produce section of your local grocery store if you’d like to make this recipe even quicker!

close up photo of watermelon salad in a white bowl

Enjoy!

~Nichole

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Watermelon Salad

Watermelon Salad features juicy bites of sweet watermelon, salty feta, bold red onions, and crunchy cucumbers! It’s all tossed together with a drizzle of balsamic reduction and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. It’s a summertime staple that’s always a huge hit at potlucks and picnics!

Ingredients 

  • 2/3 Cups Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon Honey
  • 5 Cups Watermelon cubed (half of a small watermelon)
  • 1 Cup English Cucumber
  • 1/4 Cup red onion sliced
  • 1/3 Cup Feta Cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Juice from one lime about 1 Tablespoon
  • 6-8 mint leaves

Instructions 

  • On medium heat bring the balsamic vinegar and honey to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir with a spatula for 5 minutes or until thickened. Place the balsamic reduction into a small bowl to cool.
  • Cut your watermelon and English cucumber into cubes. Place into a medium-sized serving bowl.
  • Cut the red onion into slices. Place into the bowl.
  • Sprinkle the feta cheese on top of the salad.
  • Squeeze one lime over the salad.
  • Sprinkle the salt on top.
  • Mix until fully combined.
  • Take the mint off the stalks and sprinkle the mint on top of the salad.
  • Can serve immediately or place in the fridge for a few hours.

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Hey! Nice to meet you! I'm Nichole!

Welcome to The Salty Marshmallow! I'm a mom, animal lover, photographer, & kitchen mess-maker. Here you will find the result of my decades-long passion for chasing the best flavors in the kitchen, all meant to be cooked by regular people with busy lives just like you and me.

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2 Comments

  1. Oh, my, this looks wonderful. I bought watermelon today so I can make this tomorrow. I’m allergic to balsamic vinegar and wonder what you think would be the best substitute. I have several other kinds of vinegar. Thank you for this, and for all the great recipes you give us!

    1. Hi! You can honestly go without the balsamic or any other vinegar, it’s really great as is without it 🙂