This easy summer salad is full of hydrating foods like watermelon, cucumber, jicama & blueberries and topped with a simple (yet addicting) coconut lime dressing. Every bite is refreshing, crunchy, creamy, and slightly sweet + tangy! Prep it in 20 minutes & serve it as a quick side dish with your favorite meal. Bring it to a potluck, backyard cookout, holiday get-together, picnic, or camping trip and you'll be a big hit. {gluten-free, grain-free & vegan}
There's nothing better than watermelon when it's ridiculously hot outside. Agreed? It's sweet, juicy, hydrating & cooling all at once.
On summer days when I'm extra sweaty, hungry, or exhausted, you'll find me chomping on cubes of cold watermelon. It's the natural thing to do when you live in Texas and it's 100+ degrees for weeks on end.
During the warm months, no-cook snacks & meals like smoothies, charcuterie boards, pressed sandwiches, chicken wraps, and leafy salads are a lifesaver. Same with cold brew coffee & cold brew tea.
When I have slightly more motivation, I save the watermelon in my fridge for making this summer salad instead. It's 100% worth the additional (quick & easy) prep.
One of the most common variations of watermelon salad includes feta cheese. You've probably seen loads of recipes floating around for it. The salty + sweet combo is super popular.
Just so you know: this salad has no feta, or any cheese whatsoever. I promise you won't miss it.
My version contains crisp, hydrating veggies, ripe seasonal fruit, fresh mint leaves (smells heavenly) + an addicting coconut lime dressing that you'll want to put on all the things.
The combo of crunchy & juicy textures + sweet, creamy, refreshing & tangy flavors is INCREDIBLE.
It may be a little different from your typical fruit salad, but it's sooooo good!
Ingredients For This Watermelon Salad
This summer salad contains simple, easy-to-find ingredients that are delicious & good for you:
- Watermelon: sweet & hydrating (+ low in calories and has good amounts of vitamin C, the antioxidant lycopene & amino acid citrulline)
- English Cucumber: cooling, hydrating & crunchy (96% water, a great amount of vitamin K + good amounts of antioxidants & phytonutrients)
- Jicama: refreshing, mild taste & extra crunchy (good source of soluble fiber and vitamin C)
- Blueberries: soft & slightly sweet (full of antioxidants)
- Fresh Mint: refreshing and cooling (excellent for digestion)
- Lime Zest + Juice: bright, tropical & slightly tart (makes all the flavors pop + also good for stimulating digestion)
- Coconut Milk: creamy, slightly sweet & cooling (with healthy fats - good for absorbing all the fat-soluble vitamins in these veggies)
- Maple Syrup: just enough natural sweetness (with trace minerals) to balance out the lime juice
How to Make This Watermelon Salad
This recipe is super easy & quick! It's basically all chopping & mixing - no cooking whatsoever.
- Cube the Watermelon: Remove and discard the green + white rind with a sharp knife. Cut the pink flesh into bite-size pieces, making sure to remove & discard the black seeds (skip this step if using a seedless watermelon).
- Peel & Dice the Jicama: Use a vegetable peeler to remove the thick, fibrous peel until only the white inner flesh of the root remains. Cut the root into small, bite-sized cubes. This makes it a lot easier to eat since it's very crunchy. (I cut it a little big for the pictures so make them smaller than I did here.)
- Slice & Quarter the Cucumber: Since we're using the English variety (Persian works, too) there's no need to peel them. If you're using the regular kind with the waxy coating, peel them before slicing.
- Chop the Mint: You want fresh mint here (peppermint or spearmint) for the strongest flavor. If you can't find that, substitute it with fresh basil instead.
- Zest + Juice the Limes: Using a zester like THIS or THIS & a manual juicer helps to speed things up.
- Shake the Coconut Milk: With canned full-fat coconut milk, the cream often hardens & separates from the liquid so you need to shake it to recombine. I like to open the can, dump all the cream into a tall mason jar, add a bit of the liquid, and shake to combine. Once it's dissolved, I add the rest of the liquid and shake it again.
- Prepare the Dressing: Stir the dressing ingredients together with a whisk or combine in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until mixed.
- Toss The Salad: When you're ready to eat, combine all the ingredients for the salad in a serving bowl, pour the dressing over the top, and gently toss to combine.
Make-Ahead Tip: This salad is best eaten without a few hours because a lot of liquid forms at the bottom of the bowl from the watermelon. Any leftovers will taste yummy the next day, but it becomes quite soggy.
So, if you want to bring it to a gathering (potluck, cookout, party, etc.), make it a few hours ahead of time, store the dressing in a separate container, and toss it with the salad right before serving. This will ensure everything stays crisp with a pretty aesthetic.
If you want to prepare it a day or more ahead, store the watermelon separately so you can discard excess juices before combining everything.
Why Use English Cucumber?
English cucumbers are faster & easier to work with because they require less prep. They have thin peels and fewer seeds so you can slice them straight away. Overall, I prefer their texture to regular cucumbers, so I use them often in recipes like chicken naan wraps or a Mediterranean salad.
You'll find them at your local grocery store wrapped in plastic near the other cucumbers (they are double or triple the length).
Of course, if you have regular cucumbers on hand, no need to make an extra trip to the store. Use what you have! Just be sure to peel the cucumbers & remove the seeds first. :)
What is Jicama?
If you've never heard of jicama before, keep reading, because you need to try it.
Jicama (pronounced hee-cama) is a Mexican root vegetable similar in texture to a potato or turnip but with an ever-so-slightly sweet taste like an apple.
I've seen it described as a "savory apple" (which I thought was pretty spot on); however, it's much crunchier (not as crunchy as a carrot, just to give you a comparison) and more refreshing, in my opinion.
Jicama is low in calories & sugar, has good amounts of vitamin C and fiber + a high water content, so it's a great choice for a healthy snack.
One of my favorite ways to eat it is sliced into thin strips and squeezed with fresh lime juice. If you like snacking on crunchy veggies like celery, sweet bell peppers & cucumber, this will be up your alley.
Important: Unlike other root veggies like turnips or beets, jicama is only ever sold as the root by itself, since every other part of the plant (leaves, seeds, etc.) is toxic if consumed. The peel is also thick, fibrous & inedible, so you'll need to peel that off first before eating. However, once that's removed (easy with a peeler), the pale white flesh of the root can be eaten raw or cooked.
Where to Find Jicama
You can typically find jicama root sold in the prepared foods sections next to the sliced fruit. If not, look for whole jicama roots next to the turnips in the produce section.
If you can't find jicama locally, you can omit it and add more watermelon & cucumber instead. But I really encourage you to look, as it's an underappreciated (but very yummy) vegetable!
What to Serve with Watermelon Salad
You might be wondering what types of foods to serve with watermelon salad or any summery fruit salad recipe.
Since this recipe has a mixture of fruits & veggies with high water content, it's pretty filling on its own. Because of this, I'll typically serve it with a lighter meal with lots of protein.
Some of my favorites are:
- crock-pot BBQ ribs
- chicken salad (I love this Greek chicken salad)
- easy tuna patties
- pan-seared fish fillets (like salmon or mahi-mahi)
- BBQ chicken thighs (baked or grilled)
- pulled pork sliders
- slow cooker whole chicken
- bratwurst (grilled or stovetop brats)
Watermelon Salad with Cucumber, Jicama & Blueberries
Ingredients
- 3 cups of cubed watermelon, seeds removed
- 2 cups of peeled & cubed jicama root (cut the cubes much smaller since its very crunchy)
- 1/2 an English cucumber, quartered and sliced (about 1 cup)
- 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries (frozen works but will dye the salad as it thaws)
- 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh mint
- Sprinkle of sea salt (like this flaky salt)
- 1/2 cup of full-fat coconut milk (canned or homemade)
- 1 tablespoon of lime zest (from about 2 limes)
- 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice (from 1 1/2 to 2 limes)
- 1 tablespoon of real maple syrup
- Extra Lime Zest & Chopped Mint (for garnish)
Instructions
- Combine the watermelon, cucumber, jicama, blueberries, mint, and sea salt in a large bowl.
- Prepare the dressing by mixing together the coconut milk, lime juice, lime zest, and maple syrup.
- Right before serving, pour the coconut lime dressing over the salad and toss everything gently to combine. Garnish with extra chopped min & lime zest, if desired, and serve immediately.
- Store leftovers in a covered container in the fridge and consume within 2-3 days for the best texture.
Notes:
MAKE-AHEAD: If you're prepping this earlier in the day, store the salad and dressing separately in the fridge. This keeps the veggies crunchier & prevents excess liquid from forming in the bottom of the bowl. If you're preparing it a day in advance, store the watermelon separate from the rest of the vegetables & fruit so you can discard any excess juices before combining everything.
Slightly Adapted from Primally Inspired's Watermelon Salad Recipe
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