This beet, watermelon and feta salad is the perfect addition to your summer backyard picnic table. The sweet and savory flavors compliment each other and the presentation is bright and colorful. It makes a great light side dish to entrees such as BBQ, sandwiches, burgers and kabobs.

This recipe only has a small handful of ingredients so it's fairly quick and easy to make. I've also listed alternate ingredients and dressings, so you can customize your salad for your guests.

Ingredients:

Cut one small watermelon into cubes and put about 8 cups aside for the salad.
4 medium sized beets. You don’t need to peel them until after they’re roasted. If you’re purchasing pre-roasted beets, you’ll need about 5 cups cubed. You can opt for red beets or yellow golden beets - both taste great!
A handful of fresh mint leaves and/or fresh basil leaves - chopped up.
3/4 cup of cheese - you could use feta or goat cheese. Just make sure it’s cut into cubes.
Chopped red onion - optional.
Walnuts chopped - optional.
Watercress chopped - optional.
Pistachios chopped - optional.
Pine nuts - optional.
Serve over baby spinach or mixed greens - optional.

Instructions to make salad:

Roast your beets - Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash your beets to remove any dirt and chop off any stems or roots.
Place on a glass baking sheet and roast anywhere between 30 mins - 45 mins (it depends on the size of your beets). The best indicator of when your beets are ready is you can easily pierce the beet with a knife.
Remove your beets from the oven and let them completely cool before you remove the skin. After you’ve removed the skin, cut them into cubes and set aside.
You can do all the beet prep-work the day before, they can sit in the refrigerator overnight.
Cut your fresh watermelon into cubes and place into a large bowl. Add your cubed beets and toss.
Next step is to prepare your cheese, herb and nuts (nuts are optional) mixture which will be tossed into the salad at the end.
In a separate bowl mix your feta or goat cheese, chopped herbs and chopped nuts. Toss gently and set aside. You can also add the chopped red onions and watercress into this mixture if you’d like.
Next step is to begin to make the dressing. I have multiple dressing options below so read through them all before you decide which one you’d like.
Add your choice of salad dressing to the beets and watermelon mixture and toss.
Finally when you’re getting ready to serve the salad, add the cheese and herb mixture and gently toss one final time. The cheese can get soggy if it sits too long in the moist salad so make sure to mix when you’re ready to eat. You can also serve your salad over a bed of baby spinach or mixed greens.