Watermelon Gazpacho with Feta and Cilantro

Our weekend left us feeling in need of a refreshing and healthy dinner. Of course the macaroni and cheese we made for a barbeque on Saturday was incredibly delicious, but it left us craving lots of veggies. We had tomatoes and a watermelon on hand, so we came up with this delicious variation on one of our favorite gazpacho recipes.

We found an amazing container of sheep milk feta from Greece at our local market. According to the package, it’s made from the milk of sheep raised on the island of Lesbos and milked in the field twice daily. This is not your typical feta! It’s dense, rich, and doesn’t float on top of a soup like you might expect. We actually thought it would be kind of a shame to crumble such a gorgeous piece of cheese on top of soup, so we cut substantial cubes of the feta, sat them on rounds of watermelon, and poured the gazpacho around it (for clean pouring we use these). Garnished with a little cracked pepper and sprig of cilantro–it was perfection.

We served our gazpacho in large restaurant bowls from Crate & Barrel, but we think it would be especially beautiful in something like this, this, or this. To cut the watermelon rounds, we sliced the watermelon about 1/2″ thick, using this knife, and then used the lid from these jars to punch out a circle shape.

We seeded our jalapeno pepper so it wasn’t too spicy. To do so, just cut it in half lengthwise and scrape out the membrane and seeds with the tip of a knife. It’s important to use a high-quality fresh oil. Our go-to is this one, and it worked really well in this recipe. We used Round Pond Cabernet Merlot Red Wine Vinegar. If you can’t find Round Pond vinegar, we also love this one.

To finish the gazpacho, we blended it in our Vitamix. Make sure to blend it right before serving since it will separate if it sits too long.

For more refreshing summer watermelon recipes, check out our watermelon and arugula salad and Straight to the Melon cocktail.