Watermelon Recipes

[sister herb]

Fancy Frozen Fruit Cups

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 20 min. Cook: 20 min. + freezing
MAKES: 18 servings


Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
• 3/4 cup thawed lemonade concentrate
• 1 can (20 ounces) pineapple tidbits, drained
• 2 medium firm bananas, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1-1/2 cups watermelon chunks
• 1-1/2 cups green grapes
• 1-1/2 cups quartered strawberries
• 1-1/2 cups cubed peaches
• 2 kiwifruit, peeled, quartered and sliced

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; stir in orange juice and lemonade concentrates. In a large bowl, combine the pineapple, bananas, watermelon, grapes, strawberries and peaches. Add juice mixture and mix well.
2. Place about 1/2 cup fruit mixture in 5-oz. disposable plastic wine glasses with removable bottoms or 5-oz. disposable cups. Top each with four kiwi pieces. Cover and freeze until firm. May be frozen for up to 1 month. Remove from the freezer about 1-3/4 hours before serving.

Source: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/fancy-frozen-fruit-cups

 

[sister herb]

No-Bake Watermelon Cake

1. You’ll need a good sized watermelon.
2. Cut off each end of the watermelon.
3. You’ll be left with the center and now you cut off the skin and white bits.

4. Cover the entire watermelon in whipped cream as if you’re icing a cake.

5. Now you simply add your choice of decorations. You can use fruits, berries, chocolate chips, chopped nuts...

 

[sister herb]

Watermelon Rind Candy

This recipe takes quite a few hours, so set aside a good block of time – maybe 5 hours, or do it across two days. It’s time consuming, but worth it! The candy will be a little salty-sweet, so if you like less salty, cut down on the salt by 1 Tbs.
Yields about 2 1/2 cups of candy, depending on the size of the melon.

• 1 small watermelon, about 3 pounds, washed
• 2 Tbs coarse sea salt or kosher salt
• 2 C granulated sugar, plus more for coating
• 2 C water, plus more for cooking
• 2-3 sprigs fresh mint leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh lime basil leaves, or sub regular basil plus 1 Tbs lime zest

Cut the watermelon into 4 to 6 wedges. Remove the pink flesh and set aside for eating later.
Take each rind wedge and scrape as much pink flesh away from the white as possible. (A grapefruit knife works as a nice tool for this.) Using a vegetable peeler, peel away the green outer skin. You’ll be left with the white part of the rind. Cut into little sticks or chunks.


Remove the pink flesh

Place all the cut white rinds into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. A pink-orange foam will float to the surface. Drain and rinse the rinds.
Clean out the saucepan. Place the rinds back in the pan and cover with water. Add the 2 Tbs salt. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse. (At this point, you can leave in the salt brine overnight if you wish and drain and continue the next day. The longer you leave it in the brine, the saltier the candy will be.)
Clean out the saucepan. Dissolve 2 C sugar in 2 C water, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the mint and basil. Add the rinds. Simmer for 45 minutes, or until softened, but still firm. Drain the rinds from the syrup, reserving the syrup for other uses if you wish.


Simmer the rinds in syrup

Line a baking sheet with parchment, and sprinkle sugar over the parchment. Scatter the drained rinds across the sugar. Dry in a 250 degree F/120 degree C oven (stirring occasionally) for about 2 hours, or until they are slighty tacky on the outside and hold their shape. Cool partly and roll in sugar to coat. Store finished candy in a jar of sugar.

 

[sister herb]

Beef-and-Watermelon Stir-fry

Ingredients

1 pound sirloin strip steak, cut into strips
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold water
2 teaspoons soyce sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 tablespoons hot water
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce*
1 teaspoon kosher salt**
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 medium-size sweet onion, halved and sliced
12 ounces fresh sugar snap peas
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
16 ounces watermelon, rind removed and cut into sticks (about 2 cups)
2 cups hot cooked rice

Preparation

1. Toss together first 6 ingredients. Let stand 30 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together hot water, and hoisin sauce.
2. Remove beef from marinade, discarding marinade. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper; cook half of beef in 1 1/2 tsp. hot canola oil in a large skillet over high heat, without stirring, 45 seconds or until browned; turn beef, and cook 30 seconds or until browned. Transfer to a warm plate. Repeat with remaining 1 1/2 tsp. oil and beef.
3. Stir-fry onion in remaining 1 Tbsp. hot canola oil in skillet over medium-high heat 2 minutes or until tender. Add sugar snap peas, ginger, and crushed red pepper; stir-fry 2 minutes. Add beef and hoisin mixture; stir-fry 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in watermelon. Add salt, black pepper, and red pepper to taste. Serve immediately with hot cooked rice.

* Hoisin sauce is a Chinese dipping sauce. Peking-style hoisin sauce ingredients include starches such as sweet potato, wheat or rice, and water, sugar, soybeans, sesame seeds, white distilled vinegar, salt, garlic, red chili peppers, and sometimes preservatives or coloring agents. Traditionally, hoisin sauce is made using toasted mashed soy beans. Despite the literal meaning, hoisin sauce does not contain seafood, nor is it typically used with it. Neither does it contain plums, even though it is frequently misidentified as plum cause.
If you can´t find hoisin sauce (or think it may contains some haram ingredients), you can replace it by soy sauce.

** Koshering salt, usually referred to as kosher salt in the US, is a variety of edible salt with a much larger grain size than some common table salt. Like common table salt, kosher salt consists of the chemical compound sodium chloride.
If you can´t find kosher salt, you can use sea salt instead but use only half amount it comparing kosher salt (1 teaspoon kosher salt - 1/2 teaspoon sea salt).

 

[sister herb]

Herbed Goat Cheese-Melon Party Bites

1 small watermelon
1 (4-oz.) goat cheese log, softened
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Garnishes: fresh basil and freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Cut half of watermelon into 1-inch-thick slices. Cut slices into 25 rounds, using a 2-inch round cutter. Scoop just enough melon from tops to form indentations, using a melon baller. Stir together goat cheese, 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil, salt, and 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper. Spoon into indentations. Chill 1 to 2 hours. Garnish, if desired.

 

[sister herb]

Watermelon Soup with Floating Meringue

14 cups seedless or seeded 1-inch watermelon chunks plus 4 cups small watermelon balls (from about 12 pounds watermelon)
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
8 meringue cookies

Directions

1. Using a blender, working in batches, liquefy the watermelon chunks with the sugar and lemon juice. Transfer the soup into a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
2. To serve, pour 1 cup watermelon soup into each of 8 small bowls, divide the watermelon balls among the servings and top each with a meringue cookie.

 

[sister herb]

Watermelon Salsa

• 1/2 whole Small Seedless Watermelon, Diced
• 2 Jalapeños, Seeded and Diced
• 1/2 Red Onion, Diced
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, Diced
• 1 Orange Bell Pepper, Diced
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper, Diced
• 1 Bunch Cilantro, Chopped
• Juice Of 1 To 2 Limes
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1/2 tsp salt; more if necessary to taste

Preparation

1. Mix everything together in one large bowl; season with salt as needed.
2. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
3. I honestly think it was even better after being in the fridge overnight. What there was left of it.

Source: http://www.creative-culinary.com/watermelon-salsa/

 

[sister herb]

GREEK WATERMELON SALAD

(serves 2)

• 1/4 of a watermelon cut up into reasonable sized cubes, seeds removed
• a small container of cherry tomatoes, halved
• a handful of parsley, roughly torn
• 100-150 gr of crumbled feta cheese

Arrange all the ingredients on a plate and enjoy!

Source: http://souvlakiforthesoul.com/2009/03/wonderful-watermelon-salad

 

[sister herb]

Watermelon Ice Pops

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

5 cups seedless watermelon pulp
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1 pint lime sherbet, softened (or mint ice cream or vanilla ice cream)

Instructions

Puree watermelon and sugar in batches in your blender or food processor until smooth and strain into a medium bowl. Cover and freeze until puree is slightly slushy, but not quite solid, about 2 to 3 hours. Remove from freezer, stir well and add in chocolate chips.

Place twelve 5-ounce disposable cups in a shallow baking pan and spoon watermelon puree into cups, leaving about a 1/2 inch left from the rim. Place pan in freezer for 2 hours, or until puree is solid, but not rock hard.

Allow lime sherbet to soften a bit, then spread over top of each portion of watermelon puree so that it comes up to the edge of the cup. Smooth sherbet with the back of a spoon and cover each cup with plastic wrap. Cut a small slit in the center of each cup and insert a popsicle stick into each pop so that it almost reaches the bottom of the cups. Freeze overnight (or until solid) and can be frozen for up to two days.

Allow pops to sit at room temperature for about a minute, then gently pull out from the cups. Serve and enjoy!

Source: http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/06/watermelon-ice-pops.html