Persian Watermelon Salad (With Cucumber And Feta)

Make this refreshing Persian Watermelon Salad using juicy watermelon, cucumber, baby spinach, pomegranate arils, Feta cheese, and a few other simple ingredients (gluten-free).

Here are some more salad recipes that you may like – Lemon Capellini Salad, Traditional Tabouli Salad, Thai Green Papaya Salad, Hawaiian Macaroni Salad, and Sumac Onions.

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• About This Recipe
• Ingredients
• How To Make Persian Watermelon Salad
• Pro Tips By Neha
• Storage Suggestions
• You Might Also Like
• Recipe Card

About This Recipe

The Persian Watermelon Salad with Cucumber and Feta is a refreshing and healthy dish that is popular in Persia.

It is made with fresh watermelon, crunchy cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions, and is seasoned with salt, pepper, and lime juice.

This salad is perfect to serve on hot summer days and can be served as a side dish or main course.

This Persian Watermelon Feta Salad is gluten-free and the recipe can be easily doubled or tripled.

Ingredients

Watermelon – Choose a medium-sized seedless ripe watermelon.

Cucumbers – This salad is traditionally made using Persian cucumbers or English cucumbers. They are much more flavorful than the regular ones and have lesser seeds too. If they are not easily available, then use any variety of cucumbers.

Pomegranate – Pomegranate arils add a nice crunch to the salad.

Baby Spinach – You can replace baby spinach with other salad greens like peppery arugula, lettuce, etc.

Others – You will also need red onions, fresh mint leaves, pistachios, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and Feta cheese.

Try to use creamy Persian feta but if it’s not available, you can use any creamy feta cheese. Feta cheese can be replaced with goat cheese too.

Mint leaves can be replaced with fresh parsley or basil.

You can try using other nuts like almonds, pine nuts, cashew nuts, or pecans in place of pistachios.

You can also replace extra virgin olive oil with grapeseed oil or avocado oil.

You can also dress the salad with honey lime dressing. Just add a tablespoon of honey to the recipe.

How To Make Persian Watermelon Salad

Preparation

Peel the watermelon and cut it into small cubes. We need 800 grams of cubed watermelon. Refrigerate it for 3-4 hours.

Wash 100 g of baby spinach in a colander under cold running water, and remove any damaged or wilted leaves. Shake and then either pat dry with a towel or spin dry using a salad spinner.

Cut a small Persian cucumber (100 g) into bite-sized cubes. Chill for 3-4 hours.

Remove the arils from a medium pomegranate. Chill for 3-4 hours.

Gather the remaining ingredients.

Make The Salad

Add 100 g of baby spinach, 100 g of cubed Persian cucumber, 800 grams of chilled watermelon, 1 cup of pomegranate arils, ½ cup thinly sliced red onions, ½ cup mint leaves (packed), ¼ cup roughly chopped pistachios, 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (or lemon juice) to a large bowl.

Season with salt and pepper then very gently toss the salad until well combined.

Transfer the salad to the serving platter and crumble 100 g of feta cheese on top.

Serve immediately.

Pro Tips By Neha

To make this watermelon salad recipe for your Christmas table, cut the watermelon using a star-shaped cookie cutter.

To make the fancier, you can use a melon baller to make small balls of watermelon.

You can add berries like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc to this salad recipe.

Make sure to chill the ingredients beforehand.

Storage Suggestions

This salad is best served immediately but if you have leftovers, then store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a day.

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