Summer Watermelon Salad with Crumbled Vegan Feta

This juicy watermelon salad, with paper thin slices of red onion and fresh mint, tastes like summer! Easy to double for a crowd, make it in minutes with storebought vegan feta (or my protein-packed homemade tofu feta if you have time!)

Making me choose my favourite summer fruit is like asking me to choose my favourite child…impossible! A dietitian loves all plants equally, ha ha. Buuuuuut, if you were to ask me which fruit tastes most like summer to me, it has to be watermelon. Summer is not complete without a ripe, juicy watermelon, preferably eaten in the sunshine as the juices drip down my chin.

So safe to say that a watermelon salad is the ultimate summer salad in my books. It’s low effort (less than 15 minutes to throw together!). Perfect as a BBQ side dish, with my cumin lime black bean burgers. And to make it vegan, the only thing you’re swapping is the feta.

There are a bunch of ways you can customize it to your tastes…but I’m pretty stuck on red onion and mint. I think that the sharpness of the red onion adds dimension to the sweetness of the watermelon and the herbal freshness of the mint just brightens it all up and makes it feel like an actual salad and not just a bowl of watermelon.

Eat your veg, but make it ridiculously flavourful: my cookbook Plant Magic is filled with easy, delicious plant-based recipes you’ll want to make again and again.

All the ways you can make this quick vegan watermelon feta salad

There is no easier summer salad than this: you don’t even need to whisk up a dressing! The most important decision you’re gonna make here is the feta. If you’re in a rush, storebought is great. I like Violife for a classic feta taste and texture, and Millsie for a more whole food option (it’s cashew based).

But, ahem, I also want to let you know that my homemade vegan feta exists and is ridiculously good. You do need some marinating time, so make it ahead, but it also takes just 10 minutes to throw together. It tastes like real marinated feta AND it gives you the added boost of protein, which makes this salad even more satisfying.

Love red onion, but find it a little too sharp? Slicing it paper thin definitely helps with that…but so does soaking it in acid: you could toss the red onion with the lime juice in a small bowl and let it sit as you prep the rest of the salad, then toss in at the tend.

More yummy ways to use up that watermelon you just bought:

• Sour Frozen Watermelon Snack (2 ingredients!)
• Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie with Almond Milk
• Watermelon Mint Chia Fresca