Grilled Watermelon? First-Years Said Yes at Monday’s Teaching Kitchen

Hopkins Hall, Winston-Salem, NC

Ever thrown watermelon on a grill? Most of the first-year students who stopped by Hopkins Hall on Monday hadn’t, until Chef Jonathan Burns, Deacon Dining’s Director of Culinary Development, showed them how.

This week’s Teaching Kitchen was all about one dish: a Summer Grilled Watermelon Salad. Chef Burns walked students through it step by step, from knife skills to balancing sweet, salty, and tangy flavors so every bite comes together.

The finished salad stacks grilled watermelon, kalamata olives, and pickled onions on a bed of baby arugula tossed in olive oil, then gets topped with feta crumbles and Virginia Vinegar Works’s Heritage Blend Red Wine Vinegar. It’s sweet, salty, a little sharp, and a lot of fun to make.

The best part? You don’t need a fancy kitchen to pull it off. Chef Burns encouraged everyone to get creative with simple ingredients, and every student left with the recipe to try on their own.

 

Want to recreate the dish at home? Here’s the recipe:

Summer Grilled Watermelon Salad

Ingredients

Pickled Onions:

  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup hot water
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 whole cloves

 

Salad Dressing:

  • Virginia Vinegar Works – Heritage Blend Red Wine Vinegar

 

Salad Base:

  • Sliced Watermelon
  • Kalamata Olives
  • Robust Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper (to taste)
  • Baby arugula
  • Feta cheese crumbles

 

Directions

  1. Prepare the fruit: Slice watermelon in half, then slice it into 1-inch slabs.
  2. Grill the watermelon: Coat watermelon slices in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Grill until slightly charred (2-3 minutes per side). No grill? A grill pan or hot skillet works too.
  3. Pickle the onions: In a jar, combine vinegar, sugar, hot water, bay leaf, mustard seed, cinnamon stick, and cloves. Add sliced onion, shake well, and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Prepare the greens: Toss baby arugula with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
  5. Assemble the salad: Top arugula with grilled watermelon, kalamata olives, pickled onions, feta cheese. Finish with a drizzle of red wine vinegar.