Pickled Watermelon Rind

July 28, 2012 | 2 Comments

My girls and I purchased a Hermiston Seedless watermelon today at Farmer John’s Produce, one of our local u-pick farms. When we got it home, Dominic was already finished working for the day, and my girls asked him for some watermelon. Within what seemed like seconds, he had cut it in half and started handing our girls their first of many slices. While we were all enjoying our watermelon, Dominic remembered a reddit post he saw earlier in the week, about pickled watermelon rind, and he suggested I make some.

He proceeded to bring his computer into the kitchen, and then pulled up the easy pickled watermelon rind post on the blog Kitchen Riffs. I had never eaten pickled watermelon rind before, but my husband has been talking about eating and enjoying it, ever since I met him many years ago. It looked like a simple recipe, and we had all the ingredients on hand, so I started cutting and peeling watermelon.

Peeling a watermelon, had never crossed my mind before today. Strangely enough, I did not expect it to be such an easy and quick process. The most challenging part of peeling, is getting a good grip on the slice, and at the same time, being careful not to squish the juice out of the remaining 1/2 inch flesh still left on the rind. In less than ten minutes, I had 4 cups of watermelon processed. I left a little more of the pink flesh on, for added deliciousness. We all really liked the pickles, and my almost 3 year old Georgia ate four of them in a few minutes, and wanted more. They are really crunchy, sweet and pickley, and will not last long in your home either. Maybe next time I will peel off more of the rind and not leave so much pink flesh attached to the rind.

Enjoy with a garnish of freshly chiffonade mint or basil leaves.

Pickled Watermelon Rind

Recipe type: Appetizer

Author: Jillian

Ingredients

3 cups watermelon rind(green outer skin peeled off, with 1/2 inch of pink flesh attached)
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar( I used Bragg)
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar(I used organic raw cane sugar)
3 3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 star anise
2 Tbsp ginger peeled and roughly chopped
1 large mint leaf, or 1 large basil leaf, sliced into thin strips(chiffonade)

Instructions

Cut about five 1 inch watermelon slices
Slice flesh off leaving about 1/2 to 3/4 inch flesh on rind.
Cube remaining flesh for snacking or a fruit salad.
Using a vegetable peeler, remove the bright green watermelon skin from the rind, being careful not to squish the juice out of the remaining 1/2 inch flesh still left on the rind
Cut peeled strips into 1 inch pieces,until you get 4 cups worth
Combine vinegars, water, sugar, salt, star anise, and ginger in a medium saucepan
Boil ingredients for 5 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt.
Add watermelon rind after the 5 minute boil
Bring watermelon rind mix to a boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring frequently
Remove pan from heat and cool for 1 hour
Transfer watermelon rind to a large mouth appropriate sized mason jar
Add as much vinegar mixture as will fit
Refrigerate overnight and then enjoy garnished with freshly sliced/chiffonade mint or basil
These will last up to a week in the refrigerator, but I doubt they won’t get eaten before then

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Tags: apple cider vinegar, basil, ginger, mint, pickled, pickled watermelon rind, rice wine vinegar, star anise, watermelon

Categories: Appetizers, Salads, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes

2 Responses so far.

Dara Weyna says:

July 28, 2012 at 10:33 pm

Hmmm…cool idea. Will have to try this, as we sure do eat enough watermelon in this house!

Reply
- Jillian says:
  
  November 2, 2012 at 7:54 am
  
  Hi Dara, I hope you do try it, it is delicious! Next time I pickle some rind, I won’t leave as much flesh on it, as I did this time. Maybe we can experiment together, when I come to visit next Summer. Thank you for reading my blog and making a comment!
  
  Reply