This Watermelon Carpaccio is a Carpaccio recipe you need to make before the summer! Bright, fresh, sweet and so refreshing. Thinly sliced watermelon topped with a dill, feta, pistachio, balsamic, olive oil and lemon juice.
Carpaccio is one of the brightest and easiest appetizers or side dishes to make. We LOVE this Tuna Carpaccio and it’s a HIT each time we serve it to friends. Make sure to use the highest quality tuna, as Carpaccio is a NO cook dish!
Today, we’re hanging on to the last day of Summer and sharing a watermelon carpaccio for a sweet ending. There’s something about savory watermelon recipes that’s so tasty!
Our Watermelon Salad is a blend of Greek salad ingredients over watermelon wedges with a Greek Salad Dressing that’s luscious! So this carpaccio recipe is a reminiscent of a salad, except in carpaccio form!
Why Make A Carpaccio Recipe
- Carpaccio is an Italian dish of thinly sliced beef (classically), dressed lightly with a vinaigrette like sauce.
- By swapping the beef with other variety of proteins or veggies, you make a tasty variation.
- Watermelon is thinly sliced so you can taste the delicate watermelon without a burst of juice.
- The topping is completely optional and can vary from a simple sauce to a salsa like topping.
- Carpaccio comes together in minutes and can be made well in advance.
- Leftovers are GREAT!
- Super easy to customize to your taste, or to what you have on hand!
Carpaccio Ingredients
Our hero: Watermelon. Since we’re making watermelon carpaccio, this our hero today! Trim off the fruit to look like a block as you can see above This makes slicing super easy. As a note, you don’t need a super sharp knife here as watermelon is easy to slice up.
Carpaccio Topping Ingredients
- Feta cheese–the salty and sweet watermelon is a DREAM!
- Pistachio — ANY nut would work, the texture contrast is amazing!
- Lemon –The acidity and tang contrasts and adds brightness to the dish.
- Balsamic Syrup –sweetness to round up all the flavors.
- Dill — One of our favorite herbs to pair with feta, however you can use thyme, oregano or just parsley.
- Quality Extra Virgin olive oil. We love Mina, a Moroccan single sourced olive oil loaded with high polyphenols.
How to Make Carpaccio
- Firstly, start by chopping the pistachio and dill on a cutting board. You can chop hem as fine or coarse as you prefer, I love them coarse for texture.
- Now you’ll chop the feta. It’s best to do cut the cheese (feta, goat or blue cheese are great here!) after the nuts to avoid the cheese being mushy.
- At that point the carpaccio topping is all ready and chopped and time to get it seasoned. Go in with salt, balsamic syrup, olive oil and lemon juice. This topping can be made three days in advance and stored in the fridge. ALSO this is a phenomenal topping for toast, grilled chicken, pasta, veggies, lentil salad and more!
- This is how thin you cant the watermelon to be! carpaccio is meant to be SUPER thinly sliced. With watermelon, you want to have thin slices that STILL hold their shape. Avoid having slices that are too thin and breaking apart, and yet avoid thick chunks.
- This is the size and thickness of watermelon slices you want to aim for, and you need about 5 inch by 4 inch chunk of watermelon, about 4-5 inch thick. This is enough for 6 servings! You can pre-slice the watermelon 3 days in advance and keep it in the fridge until ready to serve. Dress the carpaccio right before serving.
- Now that you’re ready to serve you’ll arrange the slices of watermelon overlapping on a plate. Take a spoon and start spooning the carpaccio topping. Be as generous as you want with the topping.
- Finally give your carpaccio recipe a squeeze of lemon juice on top and your watermelon carpaccio is READY!
- Look at how DELICIOUS this looks!! So good, like seriously too GOOD to miss out!
Carpaccio Tips
- Start with a bock of watermelon so you can end up with even slices.
- Thinly slice your watermelon to a point where it’s thin but not breaking apart.
- If you don’t have watermelon, use any fruit you like!
- Feel free to swap cheese, use goat or blue cheese –they pair so well with watermelon.
- Make sure to have a topping that’s well balanced in terms of salt, sweet, tang and herb.
- You can pre slice the carpaccio and keep it stored, covered in the fridge for 3 days.
- Similarly you can chop and prepare the toppings and store that for 3 days in the fridge as well..
- Dress the carpaccio ONLY when you’re ready to serve!
- Store leftovers in the fridge and eat within 48 hours.
This is such an easy recipe which tastes like summer on a plate!
Watermelon Recipes
Easy Watermelon Slushie
No churn cWatermelon Sorbet
Watermelon Carpaccio
This Watermelon Carpaccio is a Carpaccio recipe you need to make before the summer! Bright, fresh, sweet and so refreshing. Thinly sliced watermelon topped with a dill, feta, pistachio, balsamic, olive oil and lemon juice.
Ingredients
Watermelon
- 1/2 watermelon cleaned and trimmed into a chunk
Carpaccio Topping
- 2/3 cup Pistachios
- 2 Tablespoons dill
- 1/2 cup feta cheese
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon Balsamic syrup
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil Mina Olive oil
Instructions
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Clean the watermelon and have it on a wooden board. Make sure the watermelon is cut into a block so it creates even slices.
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Slice the watermelon into thin slices that are not too think where the slices fall apart, and yet not too thick where the watermelon juice comes flowing with each bite.
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Repeat the slicing process until al the watermelon is done.
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To make the topping, use a cutting board and chop the pistachio and dill coarsely.
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At that point add in the feta and continue chopping until the mixture is al the same size--about pea size bits.
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Add all the chopped toppings in to a bowl and then season by adding all the remaining ingredients and mix well.
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Carefully dollop the carpaccio topping over the sliced watermelon making sure to cover the entire surface.
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Squirt extra lemon juice on top and scatter more fresh dill if you like, and then serve and enjoy right away!
Recipe Notes
Carpaccio Tips
- Start with a bock of watermelon so you can end up with even slices.
- Thinly slice your watermelon to a point where it's thin but not breaking apart.
- If you don't have watermelon, use any fruit you like!
- Feel free to swap cheese, use goat or blue cheese --they pair so well with watermelon.
- Make sure to have a topping that's well balanced in terms of salt, sweet, tang and herb.
- You can pre slice the carpaccio and keep it stored, covered in the fridge for 3 days.
- Similarly you can chop and prepare the toppings and store that for 3 days in the fridge as well..
- Dress the carpaccio ONLY when you're ready to serve!
- Store leftovers in the fridge and eat within 48 hours.
This is such an easy recipe which tastes like summer on a plate!
Wow! This recipe was so sophisticated and delicious!
So light and fresh, and very flavorful. We loved it!