Isn’t the ease of summertime cooking wonderful? I love the availability of fresh produce, fresh herbs from our balcony garden, and our little grill which means not using my oven quite as much as during the rest of the year! (Isn’t that little green grill just the cutest ever?)
I’d like to share one of my favorite summer no stove/no oven appetizer: a lovely array of watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, and feta cheese. With all the colors, it looks a bit like a mosaic when it’s ready to serve, and it’s packed with little punches of flavor in every bite! This is a “non-recipe recipe”, so there won’t be a recipe to print out at the end. You simply cut up as much of everything as you need to serve, arrange it, follow your heart to drizzle and sprinkle some “extras” over the top and enjoy. And it’s all done in about 45 minutes!
I decided to do something a little different for this post. Since this is such a simple appetizer, I thought it would be fun to take a “cook with me” approach in a video. This way, you can see that it really does come together quickly in real time. While the greatest detail, tips and tricks are in the video, I’ll still share photos and a quick summary below. This way, you can get the best of both worlds!
Here are the ingredients that I use for this appetizer:
- Small seedless watermelon (I used about 1/3 of the watermelon)
- Small cantaloupe
- 1 English cucumber
- 8 oz block of feta cheese
- To drizzle & sprinkle, we have olive oil (use the “good stuff”), thick balsamic vinegar, honey, za’atar spice blend, chili flakes, large-flake sea salt (I use Maldon), fresh mint
- In addition, I use a 1” round cookie/biscuit cutter (as shown in the photo) to cut up the ingredients.
If you’d like me to walk you through this step by step in real time, the video is just below. It’s about 35 minutes long, with some interesting tips along the way. If you prefer a summary version, please read on after the video.
In the video, I mention that to extract as much water as possible from the watermelon, it needs to sit in the fridge with a bit of sugar for “15-30 minutes”. Well, I take that back! It really does need to be in for a full 30 minutes in order to sufficiently limit the amount of water released on your serving platter. I tried to rush it for the “in real life” video and realized my error after I finished filming. So, 30 minutes it is! As you will see, that time is put to good use preparing the remaining ingredients.
Preparation Summary:
- We want to release water from the watermelon in order to limit the amount of water released on the serving platter, so we will start with preparing the watermelon first.
- Slice the watermelon into 1” slices.
- Using the 1” cutter, cut the watermelon into round pieces, placing the pieces in a colander set into a bowl to catch the draining juice.
- Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of sugar over the watermelon and gently toss to combine. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- While the watermelon is in the fridge, use the same process for cutting the cantaloupe into round shapes.
- Next, slice the cucumber into one-inch pieces and, using the cutter, cut the center out for round, skinless shapes.
- Next, cut the feta cheese into the same round shapes.
- Create your mosaic! Remove the drained watermelon from the fridge and arrange it along with the cantaloupe, cucumber, and feta on a serving platter, mixing the various components. No rhyme nor reason is necessary – just an arrangement that looks pretty and inviting!
- Drizzle lightly with olive oil and honey, sprinkle with za’atar spice blend, a bit of chili flake and some Maldon salt. Finish with torn mint leaves and drops of balsamic vinegar around the edges. Follow your heart with these “add-ons”: If you don’t care for heat, go easy on the chili flakes, or omit it altogether. If you prefer more fresh herbs (thyme, basil and marjoram come to mind) or other spices (perhaps Aleppo pepper or a tiny bit of cumin), go for it! The options here are really limitless. Add some toothpicks and you’re ready to roll!
I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! I also hope you found the video approach helpful and fun. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.
I love being able to grill outside in the summer and avoid using the oven. The Chopping Block patio is in its glory through the rest of the summer! Explore our hands-on grilling classes, especially classes like Fire and Fungi: Grilled Mushroom Feast, Burger Lab: Smash vs Pub Burgers on the Grill, The Tuscan Grill: From Fire to Feast, and Peruvian Grilling.
