If you’re craving the perfect end of summer staple, our Two Medium Sized Ladies Watermelon Tomato Salad with Feta & Mint is here to save the day! This kitchen classic is a composed salad of bite-sized chunks of cool watermelon, ripe red tomato and salty feta cheese topped with lots of fresh mint. No dressing needed – the mint heightens the flavors bringing a refreshing aroma and taste to this juicy and healthy dish.
The best part? You can make it the day of your event in under 15 minutes and we’re going to show you how to make it look beautiful, too.
The sweetness in this side dish comes from ripe and juicy watermelon. Did you know watermelon made its first appearance in an English dictionary in 1635? John Mariani’s Dictionary of Food and Drink describes ‘wild watermelon’ but these were the exact opposite of today’s fruit. They were not tender, bright red and sweet but hard, pale and incredibly bitter. Plus there were those inedible seeds.
Our grandparents had to spit out the seeds and is perhaps why the watermelon was so often relegated to an outdoor eating experience. But during their lifetime, watermelon breeders finally created the seedless watermelon. We’re sure picnics were never the same. The white seed coats are perfectly safe to swallow while eating – and unlike the old wives’ tale, no watermelons will grow in your stomach if you ingest one.
Add to that exciting news the introduction of the personal watermelon. These are smaller versions of this gigantic original fruit, weighing in at just 4-6 pounds, taste sweeter with a thinner rind, which makes them the perfect size to cut and use without wasting any fruit for this side salad. They also fit a lot easier into your refrigerator.
Today’s hybrid watermelon makes it possible to enjoy the delicious taste of this juicy, refreshing fruit along with homegrown tomatoes and feta cheese plus the summer’s best herb – mint. And you can prepare this delicious and beautiful salad in no time at all.
We have a few tips to help make this a top contender at your next event.
- Make sure you use a ripe watermelon and ripe tomatoes – both should be a deep red color for this salad to present all the tastes of summer together.
- Neatly cube your fruit into large chunks. Small pieces tend to disintegrate when you mix everything together
- Chiffonade the mint to get pretty, uniform pieces (we tell you how to do this below)
- Gently toss the components a few times but less mixing is better
- It tastes better when it’s had about an hour to marinate and is chilled
You can compose this in 10 minutes; refrigerate at least one hour covered until ready to serve.
Watermelon Tomato Salad with Feta & Mint
Serves: 4-6 people
Ingredients:
Personal Watermelon, between 4-6 lbs.
4 ripe Heirloom, Beefsteak or other large tomatoes
8 oz. block of feta cheese
8-10 fresh mint leaves
Technique: Cube everything.
The key to this recipe is to cut everything into bite-size, uniform chunks as much as possible. It will make the salad look pretty and the texture tastes really good. The watermelon will most likely be the largest squares so cut it first. With a personal watermelon you can trim off the rind fairly easily, then slice the watermelon in halves and quarters, then squares.
Dice the tomatoes in larger than normal chunks. This is not salsa! These will likely be a bit smaller pieces than the watermelon squares. Remember: the more uniform each fruit, the better.
Then take the block of feta, dispose of the liquid and cut it into squares. The feta will be the smallest size squares. If it’s too difficult to cut the feta into squares, try making thick rectangles. The key is that each of these chunks is bite size.
Wash and pat dry the mint leaves then lay them on top of each other with the largest leaf on the bottom. Roll into a cigar, then delicately slice along the cigar with your chef’s knife all the way down the leaves, which will create beautiful, thin strips of mint. You can cut these into smaller segments but make sure they are not too small and that they maintain uniform sizing.
Toss all ingredients together in a bowl that is more wide than deep for a lovely presentation. Cover and refrigerate about an hour. Just before serving, toss it a few times and garnish in the center with a sprig of fresh mint.
We’ve had nothing but compliments on this salad, so if you make it, we hope you get lots of accolades too!