Recently Safeway invited me to visit a watermelon grower, Perry & Sons. Safeway has been working with Perry & Sons for 60 years and wanted to put a draw attention to their commitment to local growers. I learned a lot about watermelon, enjoyed some lovely watermelon cuisine but to be honest, I was a little disappointed. The watermelon I took home was a seedless variety and it lacked the depth of flavor and sweetness of a seeded watermelon. It was good, just not as sweet as I would have liked.
I tend to shy away from buying watermelon because it's such a big fruit. So what do you do with lots of watermelon? In addition to making wonderful salads, I discovered it's terrific for smoothies. The trick is adding another fruit to complement it. I tried cantaloup, banana and blueberries and each were wonderful. It makes sense since watermelon is so good in agua fresca. I bet just about any other summer fruit would be great with watermelon such as peaches or raspberries. And no yogurt or milk needed. Just fruit!
Interestingly enough my favorite bite of watermelon served on the tour was a chunk of watermelon marinated in balsamic vinegar, it intensified the flavor and balanced the sweetness. If you've got a lot of watermelon on your hands, try it in savory dishes such as salsa, wrapped in prosciutto, in gazpacho with shrimp or in a ceviche. And you can whittle a watermelon down to almost nothing if you blend it up in a smoothie...
Watermelon Summer Smoothies
1 serving
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup diced chilled watermelon
1/2 or more frozen fruit such as banana, blueberries, strawberries, etc.
Instructions
Place the fruit in the blender and blend until smooth. Ok that's it! Nothing more to it.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I was a guest of Safeway and received a watermelon, I was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy.
