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Kiwi & Feta Salad From Nadiya Hussain

by:
July 14, 2021
4
54 Ratings
Photo by Julia Gartland. Food Stylist: Sam Seneviratne. Prop Stylist: Jessica Faria.
  • Prep time 25 minutes
  • serves 4 to 8
Author Notes

Can you spot the surprise star of this salad? It's not the dressing so good you could drink it (but you could), and it's not The Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain's brilliant trick for making the whole thing ahead (but you could). It is an ingredient that will make your salads easier, greener, and more delicious—and we've been throwing it away for too long.

As Nadiya writes in Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives, “I only recently discovered through the powers of social media that you can eat a kiwi with the skin on! I mean, why didn’t I think of that? We eat peaches with their fuzzy skin and don’t bat an eyelid, even if the sensation is that of licking a Russian Blue cat! Kiwis are a great balance of tart and sweet with the added pop of the little black crunchy seeds that make it much more than a lunchbox snack. This is a welcome change from a potato salad at a barbecue.”

A few more tips: Kiwis and cucumbers can handle pretty much whatever amount of dressing you throw at them without getting weighed down, but you can also feel free to throw in extra ingredients if you’d like to stretch the dressing further: raw zucchini, ripe tomatoes, whatever you like. Nadiya would want you to have fun and make this your own.

Recipe adapted very slightly from Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives (Clarkson Potter, November 2020).

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. As an Amazon Associate, Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.

Hear more about this recipe from Nadiya herself, on our podcast The Genius Recipe Tapes.

Helpful tools for this recipe:
- Microplane Zester
- Five Two Essential Kitchen Knives
- Citrus Juicer

 —Genius Recipes

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Kiwi & Feta Salad From Nadiya Hussain
Ingredients
  • 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • 1 garlic clove, finely grated
  • 1 tablespoon za’atar
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 1 red onion, peeled and finely diced
  • 8 kiwis, firm and not overripe, ends trimmed, chopped into chunks, skins and all
  • 1 large cucumber, seedless or seeded
  • 7 ounces feta, crumbled or roughly chopped
  • 1 handful fresh dill, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
Directions
  1. Start by making the dressing in the bottom of a large serving bowl. (This saves on washing up if nothing else.) Add the oil, lemon juice, honey, garlic, za’atar, and tahini and mix.
  2. Add the onion and mix really well. The onion will soften as it sits in the dressing. Add the kiwi.
  3. To prepare the cucumber, slice lengthwise and remove the seeds using a small spoon. Cut into long strips and then into cubes. Add to the bowl. Add the feta on top and sprinkle with the chopped dill and sesame seeds.
  4. Don’t mix the salad till you are ready to serve, or everything will wilt and go weird. To make it ahead, pop it in the fridge, covered, until it’s time to serve.
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Recipe by: Genius Recipes

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51 Reviews

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Cynthia C. August 6, 2023
Beautiful salad. I made as written and although quite nice, I will kick it up a bit next time. More garlic, lime juice and za’atar.
Denise T. July 23, 2023
Love experimenting with the variety of different salad recipes. This recipe turns out to be one of those recipes I would make again.
Mvtuig April 8, 2023
So delicious
Wendy L. March 31, 2023
This salad was such a surprise! Everything is balanced between sweet and salty—and you don't even notice the kiwi skin. Dressing and feta tied it all together. I didn't have dill but am anxious to try it because it seems like it doesn't fit. Love adventures in food. :)
Moca August 3, 2022
It was so delicious! It has a unique flavor and it’s so fresh and tasty.
Thanks for sharing! Cheers!
Burton July 27, 2022
There's a lot going on in this salad. Is it good? Uh... hard to say. Without the kiwis, this is a nice if perhaps a bit over-complicated Mediterranean cucumber salad. With them... well, the kiwis do add a nice pop of slightly tart sweetness, which is a welcome contrast to the other strong flavors. The skins are barely noticeable - I don't mind them, but as far as I can tell they added nothing to the dish. But... I guess what I'm really just stuck on is that I don't really think the kiwis added anything that couldn't have been added better with different fruit. If I was making this again, I think I'd sub in strawberries for the kiwis - it seems like that would be a much better flavor pairing, and the red might help the salad look a bit less visually uniform and blah. Slightly under-ripe peaches or nectarines could probably work as well. As is, this salad felt like a bit of a waste of kiwis - very little of their distinctiveness really makes it through. I did finish my bowl, so there's that - I may very well make this again, but if I do, I think I'm probably going to switch the kiwis for a different fruit, or else just omit them entirely and increase the proportion of honey and lemon in the dressing to compensate.
eeliz July 25, 2022
This salad is so beyond delicious! It has every element perfectly—crunchy texture from the cucumbers, creaminess from the tahini dressing, a little pop of sweetness from the kiwi. Pairs so well with any grilled meat or fish and a glass of rosé in the summer!
Lynn D. May 13, 2023
I recently made a salad with kiwi, cucumber and avocado. I can tell you that's a really nice pairing!
Maggy July 25, 2022
I am telling every in my tribe to make this salad. I loved the zing of the za’atar. I used a regular (not English) cucumber but peeled it. Otherwise no changes. Next time I will make it on a platter (instead of flat bottomed bowl) so that the dressing sits in a well.
Hislan July 25, 2022
Not as good as I thought it would be. Agree with other people 100s of better options for salads out there.
Michele July 24, 2022
Yeah this was a nope for me. Not that it was horrible, but there are SO many other great salads out there that don't require this amount of work for a very mediocre (in my opinion) result. Also, fair warning: I blended the dressing in a vitamix; big mistake. It came out like a clump of peanut butter, I should've known better. I had to save it by adding a little unseasoned rice vinegar. Honestly didn't change the taste of the dressing that much, just the consistency.
Heather H. May 30, 2022
It is wonderful but cut the dressing on half or it is swimming in it. I am normally the person that would add extra dressing but this was way too much. I will definitely make this recipe again.
jpw March 6, 2022
I dunno what y'all are on, but this salad was very delicious. You have a lot of room to play with the ratios, especially with the kiwis and cucumber. My only "issue" is that I purchased a cucumber that was too long to balance with eight kiwis, and consequently, I got some cucumber-dominant bites when I would've liked more sweetness. So if you're big on the profile, consider adding a couple extra kiwis or purchasing a shorter cuke. The dressing wasn't overpowering yet it enhanced the overall flavor and subtly brought it to life. This is not a typical side Caesar; it is more of a main course salad, so if you want more of a side Caesar role, take all the ratios down. And the kiwi skins—not an issue at all. Mix the kiwi chunks and the onions simultaneously with the dressing, then throw everything else on top, then mix again. The skins will be soft enough you'll barely notice they're even on.
Ann February 27, 2022
Loved it, but ... I didn't feel the tahini added much to the taste/texture, and I hated, hated, hated the way it made the salad look - obnoxiously tan. So after it sat 2 days in the refrigerator, I put everything in a strainer and rinsed it off. Much better, even if the kiwis and cucumbers were past pristine. In the future (and I will be making it again), I will skip the tahini, fold the kiwis into the dressing right away to give the skins a chance to soften a bit, make sure that the za'atar is fresh (mine was in a brand new sealed package, but tasted slightly moldy, a problem I have occasionally with dried thyme), and perhaps substitute mint for dill. I used Bulgarian feta and it was perfect - not too wet, not too salty, and pleasantly tasty with sheep and cows' milk cheeses. Thanks for a new take on a fruit I seldom eat.
pattyp December 23, 2021
Just a heads up ... Canadian here who lived in New Zealand for 12 years where kiwi fruit were originally developed (from Chinese gooseberries). They are indeed called KIWI FRUIT. A Kiwi is the bird, the NZ dollar, or a citizen of NZ. The exporters tried a name change with the golden kiwi fruit (Zespri) but it doesn't seem to have taken off. And many Kiwis eat the fuzzy skin.
Betty November 4, 2021
I have to agree about the sweetness of this recipe. I do not love “sweet”, so reduced the honey. Next time I will leave it out completely. But there will be a next time, probably on a hot summers day.
Karen September 18, 2021
Oh dear. I followed this recipe to the tee and find it to be horrifyingly sweet. We could not eat it at all and ended up dumping it out. I took away the new concept of eating the skin on the kiwis, but wasted some really nice ingredients. Maybe it would work without the honey, but I'm moving on. Sorry! I was so sad, after giving the salad a huge build up! My family thought I was losing my mind.
Rosalind P. July 20, 2022
to Karen: I won't eat a salad that has any touch of sweet. Savory salad is my thing. But this salad would be great with other (non-sweet) dressings and if the kiwi fruit is not super ripe it won't make the salad sweet. I think the most interesting part of the recipe is the combination of ingredients, not the dressing.
Kelli G. August 17, 2021
I left out the feta because I don't eat dairy and I didn't have any za'atar or red onion. I subbed in a pile of spring onions and added some Asian chili flakes. Salted generously. I thought this salad was fantastic and had no trouble with the skin on the kiwis. Will definitely make again and often.
erinkathleen15 August 9, 2021
This salad is delicious. People have left some really harsh reviews, but I LOVED it. The dressing is packed with flavors that are amazing on their own but play super well with the tart kiwis and fresh cucumber and dill. The feta didn't overwhelm at all; it's just the salty creaminess you need to balance the tartness of the kiwi and lemon juice. And geez, the kiwi skin is just about the last thing I noticed while eating this flavorful salad! This is, indeed a genius recipe.
erinkathleen15 August 9, 2021
Well, just a couple harsh reviews, but they scared me and then I loved the salad! 😉
PhoenixAZman August 4, 2021
I have a friend who loves Kiwi, I saw this recipe and decided to make this for them. I followed the recipe to a tee.
It was not good, we both struggled to even finish a small bowl each. The rest sat in the refrigerator for weeks and then I threw it out -it was not good. AT ALL so whoever is going to be making this don't do it TERRIBLE- AND EXPENSIVE!
Kristen M. August 5, 2021
I'm so sorry to hear this wasn't for you—thanks for giving it a try.
Pam R. August 3, 2021
Tossed with arugula. Delicious. I would use less of the delicious dressing, however. Served with a seafood salad and everyone devoured the salad-peel and all. Kids and adults. It was a big hit.
Kristen M. August 5, 2021
Wonderful! Thanks for reporting back.