Quick and Easy Ways with Watermelon

A salad, a soup, yes, and a grilled watermelon!

On a hot summer's day, who can resist a big fat hunk of watermelon. But beyond the traditional servings of half-crescent moon slices and cubed fruit salad, what else we can do with the sucker? A lot, as it turns out. If you think watermelon on the grill sounds unlikely, so did we, until we tried it—absolutely sublime. The smoke from the grill and the juicy sweetness of the melon are a marriage made in heaven. And the combination of watermelon, feta, olives and lime in the Mediterranean Watermelon Salad was another revelation. The seedless watermelons at your local grocery are convenient, but if you can venture to your local farmers' market, look for more flavorful heirloom varieties. Keep an eye out for Moon and Stars and Carolina Cross; for a golden-fleshed watermelon, try Yellow Crimson.

Story and recipes by Morgan Jarrett, a food writer in Brooklyn, N.Y.