Sweet, refreshing watermelon feta salad with a bit of a tang from the pickled daikon radishes and ends off with a salty note from the feta cheese. Great as a salad or as a side dish! Sound like an odd combination? You’ll be surprised!
Who loves watermelon?? I do, I do! 🙂 There are moments I love it so much that I feel like eating it for dinner! Probably not too practical, but that’s okay!
This watermelon feta salad is juicy and sweet with a bit of a tang from the pickled daikon radishes and ends off with a salty note from the feta cheese.
You know what’s weird? I’m actually not a fan of salty watermelon. My dad used to sprinkle salt on his watermelon all the time and told me it brought out the sweetness of the watermelon but I never understood it and never liked it! Go figure. This watermelon feta salad didn’t have the same feel, the tang from the pickles and lime pulls the salty and sweet flavours together into something that almost reminds you of a thai salad.
INGREDIENTS
All ingredients for this watermelon feta salad can be found at your local grocery store. Surprisingly I have also even found daikon radishes available at a local grocery stores as well! However if you cannot find it there, you will most likely find it at an Asian grocery store.
Randomness with Pickles: I have never tried this (but plan to in the near future) but substituting a sweet crunchy pickle – like the bread and butter pickles for the picked daikon! If you get a chance to experiment with the pickle let me know how it goes! Always love seeing and hearing about fun and new creations.
For a more subtle onion flavour, you can substitute the red onion for shallots. Soaking them in cold water also takes the bite out of raw onions.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
If you’re following along, you’ll remember that last week, I put out a really quick and easy pickled daikon radish recipe which is what I used for this recipe.
How Do You Pick Out a Good Watermelon?
The process I go through to pick out a good watermelon are:
- Lift it Up – It should feel heavy for its size, pick up a few and compare which one is heavier and go with that. Heavy means juicy.
- Shape & Colour – A symemtrical even shaped watermelon with no bruises is always a good thing. Look for a nice dark green watermelon. Look for a yellow patch on the bottom side as well – the yellower the better. A whiter bottom means it was picked while it was still ripening while a yellow bottom means it sat under the sun in the same position for longer.
- Bopping it – This method is a bit of a hit or miss but I generally just slap it and it makes a deep ‘thunk’ hollow sound with a bounce back to my hand then I’m happy.
Is it summer yet? I think it is.
Watermelon Feta Salad with Pickled Daikons
Ingredients
- 1/2 small watermelon (cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes - approximately 3 cup)
- 1 stalk green onion (finely chopped, both the greens and whites but discard the very end with the roots)
- 1 lime (juiced - approximately 2 tablespoons)
- 1 cup pickled daikon radish
- 1/4 cup feta (crumbled)
- 3 tablespoon sweet Vidalia onion or red onion (finely chopped)
- black sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Cut the watermelon into 1 1/2 inch cubes (using a melon baller is a fun way to shape these as well) and set it in a bowl
- Cut the pickled daikons into 1/2 inch cubes and add it to the bowl
- Dice the sweet Vidalia onion and green onion finely and add it to the bowl
- Crumble the feta cheese over everything in the bowl
- Cut the lime in half and squeeze out the juice and put it into the bowl
- Gently mix everything in the bowl together
- Top with black sesame seeds (optional)
- Enjoy as a salad, appetizer, side dish or snack!
Notes
- to remove the bite of raw onions, after you finished chopping them, soak them in cold water for 1 minute and then drain and rinse them out.
- this salad is best enjoyed when it has freshly been prepared.
Nutrition
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
zunok.hk says
The sharpness of pickled onions offers a pleasing contrast to crisp, juicy watermelon and salty, creamy feta cheese.
Joyce says
I totally agree! There’s so much going on with flavours in this one 🙂
Josie says
This dish is easy to make. Like watermelon is easy to buy in summer. Other ingredients we usually have at home in our daily cooking.
Thanks.
Joyce says
I’m glad you enjoy it! 🙂
Alison @ The Sunday Glutton says
This looks so elegant and delicious! It’s going to be perfect this summer when watermelon is in season. I never put salt on it, but since moving to california, I’ve discovered putting tajin on fruits like watermelon and mango – it’s essentially lime chili salt and it really brings out the sweet!
Joyce says
No waaaaay! I never heard of tajin but I am so obsessed with lime and chilli! I definitely need to try this out! 😀