pickled watermelon

We had an excess of leftover watermelon after the housewarming party, so I made watermelon preserves. Or Pickled watermelon. I’m not totally sure.

I tried two recipes, both of which were very easy to follow. The only time consuming part is cutting and peeling the watermelon rinds, but I found the repetition to be meditative.

The first batch had savory elements, but ended up tasting more like a relish than anything else. I adopted it from this recipe.

The second was sweeter and tastier, in my opinion. It has a real crunch to it too. I think it would go nicely on top of a bowl of vanilla ice-cream. Adopted from this recipe.

Check out the sorta kinda recipes, below.

Watermelon Relish

• Rind of half a watermelon
• A Thumb length of ginger, skin peeled
• 2 Teaspoons of mustard seeds
• 6 Tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar (I used 1/4 each)
• A pinch of so of salt
• 1 Star anise

1. Peel watermelon rind and cut into 1/2 in cubes, or smaller
2. Cut ginger into small pieces
3. Place all ingredients in a pot and boil for 10-20 minutes
4. Place in sterilized jar, allow to cool

Sweet Watermelon Preserves

• Rind of half a watermelon
• A bunch of splashes of vanilla extract
• The peel of half a lemon
• The juice of half a lemon
• approximately 1/2 cup sugar
• a dash of cinnamon
• a pinch of salt

1. Peel watermelon rind and cut into 1/2 in cubes, or smaller
2. Place all ingredients in a pot and let sit for 2-3 hours to allow syrup to form
3. Turn on heat and boil for 10-20 minutes
4. Place in sterilized jar, allow to cool