Watermelon- Feta Salad
( A lovely summer salad made using watermelon, feta cheese, hazelnuts, almonds, cucumber, and mint leaves )
When the weather starts to warm up, we crave something cool and juicy. After mangoes, watermelon is my favorite summer fruit! This is a lovely summer salad, made with watermelon.
Watermelon - cucumber is a lovely combo to incorporate in a summer salad, as both have very high quantities of water in them. The mint leaves in the salad, add some extra zing. The hazelnuts and almonds add a nutty touch to it and the feta cheese enhances the flavor furthermore! A simple dressing on top of all this and the salad is ready! You can conjure up this salad within a few minutes!!
Ingredients
For the salad -
7 cups watermelon cubes deseeded
2 cups cucumber cubes
1 cup feta cheese crumbled
1/4 cup hazelnuts
1/4 cup walnuts
15-20 fresh mint leaves.
For the dressing -
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp black pepper freshly crushed
salt as per taste.
Method
Cut watermelon and cucumber into large cubes and put them in the refrigerator for 30-40 mins.
Roast hazelnuts in a pan on low flame till they get fragrant (10-15 mins). You can roast them in an oven for 12-15 mins at 280 °C (536°F). Keep aside and cool completely.
In a small bowl mix olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper powder and give it a nice stir.
In a large salad bowl, add watermelon cubes, cucumber, chopped walnuts, toasted hazelnuts, feta cheese.
Pour the dressing over this and toss well.
Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
WATERMELON - FETA SALAD IS READY TO SERVE!
Notes -
Using feta cheese is important for this salad. Feta cheese has a distinctive flavor, which goes perfectly well with watermelon. Don’t buy pre-crumbled feta cheese. You crumble it when adding to the salad.
Try to deseed the watermelon as much as possible. I do this using the tip of a sharp knife.
You can skip the nuts if you are allergic to them.
You can skip adding the cucumber if you don’t like its taste.