Perfectly Practical #79 - Watermelon
I hate wasting food. I love being able to use every single part of something down to last smithereen.
Some examples:
Flesh - That watery sweet flesh can be eaten as is or pureed down to make jelly or wine. Or why not freeze the juice? My Me-Me used to freeze watermelon juice and as I kid, I used to love scraping out the icy pink goodness from the jar and eating it like sorbet. Speaking of sorbet, why don't you have a go at making it or granita using the watermelon flesh. You can use the flesh in salads. If nothing else, you can puree the watermelon for smoothies.
White meat - You know that white part separating the rind from the flesh? You can use that to make preserves, chutneys, or relishes.
Green Rind - It may be a Southern thing, but watermelon rind pickles are not unusual around these parts. You may make sweet or savory pickles. Last night for supper we had a watermelon rind salad.
Seeds - They are full of zinc (good for your immune system) so roast them like pumpkin seeds for a snack. This is perfect for those folks you have nut allergies but still like crunchy salty snacks. To me, they kind of even taste like roasted peanuts. Watermelon seed tea is a great kidney cleanser and is even said to get rid of kidney stones. In some cultures, they grind the seeds to use as flour for bread making. You can also use ground watermelon seeds as a thickening agent in puddings or curries.
Stem ends - Put these in your wormery; those little rascals love watermelon.
Come back Thursday to see what's cooking with watermelon in our kitchen.
This is part of We Are That Family's Works for Me Wednesday & Raising Homemakers.
Some examples:
- A whole chicken can be broken down into: necks and innards go for dog food or for gravy, meat can be eaten as is or stretched to make several casseroles, carcass gets used to make chicken stock
- Pears: use flesh for all manner of pies, preserves, butters, pickles, or jams and use the peels for making jelly, compost anything left
- Peaches: same as pears but are able to use the pits as well as the peels for jelly
Flesh - That watery sweet flesh can be eaten as is or pureed down to make jelly or wine. Or why not freeze the juice? My Me-Me used to freeze watermelon juice and as I kid, I used to love scraping out the icy pink goodness from the jar and eating it like sorbet. Speaking of sorbet, why don't you have a go at making it or granita using the watermelon flesh. You can use the flesh in salads. If nothing else, you can puree the watermelon for smoothies.
White meat - You know that white part separating the rind from the flesh? You can use that to make preserves, chutneys, or relishes.
Green Rind - It may be a Southern thing, but watermelon rind pickles are not unusual around these parts. You may make sweet or savory pickles. Last night for supper we had a watermelon rind salad.
Seeds - They are full of zinc (good for your immune system) so roast them like pumpkin seeds for a snack. This is perfect for those folks you have nut allergies but still like crunchy salty snacks. To me, they kind of even taste like roasted peanuts. Watermelon seed tea is a great kidney cleanser and is even said to get rid of kidney stones. In some cultures, they grind the seeds to use as flour for bread making. You can also use ground watermelon seeds as a thickening agent in puddings or curries.
Stem ends - Put these in your wormery; those little rascals love watermelon.
Come back Thursday to see what's cooking with watermelon in our kitchen.
This is part of We Are That Family's Works for Me Wednesday & Raising Homemakers.
Thanks for leaving this link in your comment on my blog!
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd add pumpkins to your list of "efficient" foods. Not only can you cook with pumpkin flesh and seeds, but the leaves and flowers are edible too.
Great idea! Thanks for the suggestion.
Delete