Aspen Cook Shares No-Oven Watermelon Feta Recipe for Heat Waves

Aspen —The heat in the valley doesn’t just sit on you; it presses down. It makes the air shimmer off the asphalt and turns a simple trip to the grocery store into a negotiation with your own sweat. If you are standing in a kitchen right now, staring at a counter that feels three degrees hotter than the rest of the house, you are asking yourself one specific question: what am I supposed to cook that won’t require me to turn on the oven?

Katherine Roberts, writing in The Aspen Times, found her answer in a salad that is technically sweet and savory, but practically just a very good excuse to eat fruit with cheese. She admits her column has become the “I’m hot, what am I supposed to cook now?” bi-weekly bulletin. But this latest recipe from The New York Times Cooking section is different. It’s a no-cook dish that relies on two specific, high-quality ingredients: a black diamond watermelon from her CSA share and fancy, flaky sea salt gifted by a friend who recently traveled to Iceland.

The result is a watermelon with whipped feta. It serves four, and it comes together in minutes.

The construction is simple, but the texture is where the magic lives. You blend eight ounces of drained feta with three-quarters of a cup of full-fat Greek yogurt and the zest of one lemon until it is "very smooth and fluffy." Roberts warns about this step. There is a fine line, she notes. She got overzealous with the water and ended up with a mixture on the thinner side, so she advises being conservative when adding liquid. You want it to resemble thick whipped cream.

You spread that white, fluffy base onto a large platter. Then you take two pounds of seedless watermelon, cut into one- to two-inch pieces, and toss it with the lemon juice and a pinch of that Icelandic salt. You arrange the fruit on top of the feta, leaving the juices in the bowl.

Roberts did not pour those juices down the sink. She drank them.

"10/10, no notes," she wrote about the liquid. It is a small detail that tells you everything about how refreshing this dish actually is. You finish the plate with two tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, leaves from two sprigs of mint or basil (Roberts used basil because it was on hand), and optional crushed red pepper.

The visual appeal matters here, especially if you are the type of person who lets your phone eat first. Roberts suggests using a dark platter, or any color except white, to avoid the "white-on-white" look. With a fluffy white base and brightly jewel-toned fruit topped with flecks of green, the dish is a stunner. It presents well enough to bring to a barbecue and pairs perfectly with grilled meats.

This is not a complex culinary feat. It is a reaction to the temperature. It is a way to use up that heirloom watermelon before it goes soft and the salt before you forget where you put it. The heat is still pressing down on the valley, but this plate offers a way out.