3 Easy Watermelon Rind Recipes to Try Now

Watermelon rind recipes are the eco-friendly and super trendy way to up your summer fare game.

Nothing in this world beats eating a cold piece of watermelon on a hot summer day (paired with the highest SPF available, obviously). The cool sweet flavor inside is the complete opposite of what hold the whole watermelon together, the rind. Usually we eat the red juicy inside and then throw out the rest. But what if you used that watermelon rind, too? < insert oohs, ahhs, and some gasps > For those of you who don’t know there are a lot of health benefits in the rinds. According to healthline.com, watermelon rinds may even make you better in bed. It’s not like a little blue pill, but the amino acid citrulline in the rind helps with some of the manliest problems. It will also help you have better workouts, reduce blood pressure, and for men it can help your prostate thanks to another antioxidant in the rind called lycopene.

READ MORE: Fresh Watermelon Granita Recipe

Using watermelon rinds is perhaps the most daunting issue, so we’ve created three different watermelon rind recipes to use those not-so-useless rinds. On a serious note, our pickled watermelon rinds will be your new summer burger topping.

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

Ingredients

3 quarts water
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 quarts small chunks of watermelon rinds (only the white parts)
1.5 tablespoons cloves (whole)
1 teaspoon mustard seed
5 large cinnamon sticks (4-6″ each)
1 quart vinegar (apple cider or another sweet variety)
2 cups sugar (we prefer white, but whatever suits your fancy)

Cooking Directions

Stir together the water and salt in a large bowl until the salt has dissolved. Add the watermelon rinds and any additional water needed to cover them, cover the bowl and allow to set overnight in a refrigerator.
Use a colander to drain the rinds from the brine solution and place them into a large sauce or sautee pan. Cover them moderately with fresh, unsalted water and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 30-35 minutes and then remove from the heat.
In a spice drainer or cheesecloth bag, prepare the spices (cloves, mustard seeds, cinnamon, etc). Place them into a new pan with vinegar and sugar. Bring to a quick boil and remove from heat.
Allow the spice and vinegar pan to sit off the heat for 30 minutes. Add in the drained watermelon rinds and bring back to a boil. When the solution is boiling, bring it down to a low-medium simmer quickly and let it stay there for 30-40 minutes until the rinds are translucent (similar to par-cooked onions).
Pour into jars or airtight containers and allow it to ‘set’ overnight, refrigerated.
Add to burgers, salads, sandwiches, ribs, or just about anything else.

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

Who thought that you can pickle something that was considered fertilizer? Basically, what you do is cube up the rinds without the green outer shell, add some salt. After it sits for a while about 12 hours in salt, you wash it off and then start the pickling process. For the full recipe click here

Candied Watermelon Rinds

You may be asking yourself, how do I turn a sour and bitter peel into a candy? Well it’s pretty simple. All you need is 5ingredients: watermelon rinds, water, sugar, salt, lemon and of course sugar! Here is an easy recipe to make these delicious candies:

4 cups watermelon rind, white part only, cut into long strips
4 cups of water, plus another 1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup salt
2 cups of sugar, plus more for coating
1 peeled lemon

Cover the rind with hot water and boil 5 minutes. Drain and cool.
When cool, cover and make a brine of 1 quart of water and 1/4 cup of salt. Set aside for at least 6 hours.
Drain and rinse several times, and then cover the rind with fresh water and cook the rinds until they are tender and the drain it.
In a pan, place 2 cups sugar, the remaining 1 1/4 cups of water, and the lemon peel. Cook until a drop forms a soft ball in cold water.
Add the rind. Simmer, stirring and lifting the rind from the bottom of the pan to prevent it from burning and sticking to the pan.
Cook until the rind is clear and the syrup forms a long thread. Remove the rind and drain. Discard the lemon peel if desired.
Drop each piece of rind in sugar for coating, and shake off the excess. Lay the rinds separately on a rack to cool and dry.

Once cool, enjoy!

A Watermelon Rind Smoothie

So this one isn’t exactly a the most complex of watermelon rind recipes — it’s an easy to make smoothie smoothie. You add the rind to any type of fruit smoothie and get all the health benefits from them without the bitter flavor, so if you are going to make a watermelon smoothie, throw in the rinds too! You can top with dried cranberries for garnish, if you choose.

You can try this one by adding the following to a blender: