This watermelon salsa recipe is so fun when served from a watermelon bowl! It is delicious with chips or on top of grilled chicken or tacos.
Does any other fruit say summer as fresh watermelon does? Every summer party, picnic, and backyard cookout from as far back as I can remember included watermelon.
We love it sliced into triangles, cut up in a fruit salad, and blended into raspberry watermelon lemonade. This watermelon salsa recipe is another delicious way to enjoy summer watermelon.
What You’ll Find In This Post
How To Choose A Watermelon
I wrote a whole blog post about how to pick a watermelon, but here are a few quick notes:
1. For this recipe, pick a small/personal-sized seedless watermelon because it is the perfect size for a bowl.
2. Choose a watermelon that will lay flat on a table. Test it out at the store by setting it on a flat surface or even the floor.
3. Pick a watermelon that is symmetrical (if cut in half, the two sides would be the same) and is free of gashes, bruises, or soft spots.
4. Look for a creamy, buttery yellow spot where the watermelon lay on the ground. A greenish-white spot means that it wasn’t left to ripen long enough.
5. Compare the weight of the watermelon with others similar in size and choose the heavier one for the juiciest watermelon.
How To Make Watermelon Salsa
Step One: Cut and Slice
Lay the watermelon on its side and cut the top 1/4 to 1/3 off using a sharp knife or watermelon slicer.
Cut slices into the flesh of the watermelon in a crosshatch pattern without going through the rind.
Make a cut all the way around the watermelon between the flesh and the rind.
Scoop out the watermelon slices, set them on a cutting board, and dice them into small pieces. Hollow out the rest of the watermelon and dump out the juice so that it can be used as a bowl. Here are more ways to cut a watermelon!
Step Two: Dice and Chop
Dice enough watermelon to measure one cup of the watermelon salsa and save the remaining watermelon for another use.
Dice one cup of cucumber. I chose an English seedless cucumber and didn’t peel it to keep the bright green color.
Dice one cup of bell peppers. Use any combination of colors.
Dice one cup of red onion.
Chop 1/3 cup fresh cilantro.
Step Three: Season and Mix
Put the diced watermelon in a bowl and add the cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, cilantro, finely chopped jalapeño pepper (add only if you want spicy watermelon salsa), lime juice, salt, and black pepper.
Mix everything together and taste the watermelon salsa. Add additional lime juice, salt, and black pepper, if needed.
Step Four: Serve and Enjoy
Scoop the watermelon cucumber salsa into the hollowed-out watermelon bowl. Serve the fresh melon salsa directly from the watermelon bowl.
Other Ways To Make It
Watermelon Pico de Gallo
You can easily turn this recipe into watermelon pico de gallo, which is a watermelon tomato salsa!
- Dice 2/3 to 1 cup of Roma tomatoes and add them to the ingredients called for in the recipe.
- You can also add a clove of minced garlic for a more authentic pico de gallo flavor.
- Since the number of ingredients increased, you may need to add more salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste.
Watermelon Mango Salsa
Watermelon and mango taste so good together! This variation is another yummy way to have a taste of summer.
- Dice 2/3 to 1 cup of fresh mangos and add them to the other ingredients.
- Taste the watermelon mango salsa and add more salt, pepper, and lime juice as needed.
Fruit Salsa with Watermelon
You can also turn this into a fruit salsa with watermelon by swapping out the diced veggies with other fruits! It will become a sweet salsa you can enjoy with cinnamon sugar chips.
- Combine 1 1/2 cups of diced watermelon, 1 cup of diced strawberries, 1 cup of diced mangos, and 1/2 cup of diced kiwi.
- Taste the salsa, and depending on how sweet your fruit is, you may need to add some granulated sugar to sweeten it up.
- This salsa is delicious on marshmallow ice cream, homemade waffles, and crepes.
Watermelon Salsa Recipe FAQs
Cut the watermelon flesh away from the rind and use a spoon to scoop it out.
Try adding more fruit and veggies such as corn, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, mango, or pineapple. You could also add garlic, black beans, or avocados.
To use this salsa as a dip for an appetizer or snack, serve it with tortilla chips or cinnamon chips. To enjoy it as part of a meal, serve it with chicken or fish or on top of tacos!
Yes, you can use freshly squeezed lime juice or bottled.
Yes. I LOVE lime juice, so that is what I use, but lemon juice would work as well.
I was wondering if I would like this recipe for watermelon salsa as much as I like my pineapple salsa, and I do! I’ve also tried adding diced tomatoes to this recipe and loved it that way too.
More Salsa Recipes
We hear you! We love salsa too! Try one of these recipes next:
- Pineapple Salsa has a delicious combination of sweet and spicy.
- Fruit Salsa is a combination of fruits and is served with cinnamon chips!
- Our Corn Salsa tastes just like the one you get from Chipotle!
- Mango Salsa is a tasty combination of juicy mangos and fresh veggies.
- This restaurant-style Salsa Recipe is made for tortilla chips!
Additional Watermelon Recipes
On the lookout for another recipe with watermelon? You’ve got to try these:
- Adorable Watermelon Cupcakes are the perfect summer treat!
- Make a fresh Watermelon Salad with glazed pecans and poppyseed dressing.
- Watermelon Pizza has cream cheese frosting for sauce and fruit for toppings!
- This Watermelon Cake is decorated with buttercream frosting to look like a slice of watermelon.
Watermelon Salsa Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 personal-sized or mini seedless watermelon (to be used as the bowl)
- 1 cup diced watermelon
- 1 cup diced cucumbers
- 1 cup diced bell peppers (any combination of green, orange, yellow or red peppers)
- ½ cup diced onion
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 tablespoon finely minced jalapeno pepper (optional – add more for additional heat)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Lay the watermelon on its side and cut the top ¼ to ⅓ off.
- Cut slices into the flesh of the watermelon in a crosshatch pattern without going through the rind.
- Make a cut all of the way around the watermelon between the flesh and the rind.
- Scoop out the watermelon slices and set them aside on a cutting board.
- Hollow out the rest of the watermelon and dump out the juice so that it can be used as a bowl.
- Dice enough watermelon to measure one cup. Save the remaining watermelon for another use.
- Put the diced watermelon in a bowl and add the cucumbers, peppers, onions, cilantro, jalapenos, lime juice, salt, and black pepper.
- Mix everything together and taste the salsa. Add additional lime juice, salt, and black pepper, if needed.
- Scoop the watermelon salsa into the hollowed out watermelon bowl. Serve the watermelon salsa directly from the watermelon bowl.
Vickie says
Can I make day before I use it
Tonia Larson says
Yes, you can make it ahead of time. If your watermelon is really juicy, you can drain the excess liquid from the container on serving day.
stacy says
this very very good! love it!
LES says
can this be preserved for use later if i make a large batch
Tonia says
Hi Les,
Since this salsa contains watermelon, it is best when eaten with a day or two.
Enjoy!
~Tonia
Paula says
This recipe was a big hit at my house. I served it as a salad to accompany carne asada and chicken tacos. The only thing I did differently was to cut the watermelon, cucumbers, and bell peppers into larger chunks. Favorite new recipe of the summer. Thank you!
Janet Carp says
How do you cut the watermelon IN the watermelon itself??
Tonia says
Hi Janet,
First cut the watermelon in half or cut off the top third of the watermelon. Use a long knife with a pointed end to make cuts, in a grid pattern, through the flesh of the watermelon without cutting the rind. Then, cut around the outer edge of the flesh, again without cutting the rind. The bottoms of each piece of watermelon are still attached but use a long-handled spoon to scoop them out. I will try to make a video showing how I do it sometime soon so that I can add it to the post. The second picture in the blog post shows what the watermelon looks like once the cuts are made.
Best of luck!
~Tonia
Ruth says
Thank you so much for sharing! They both look lovely.