This summer my husband has been on a watermelon kick. We all get those from time to time, right? Where nothing else seems to make your mouth water but that one special thing. Me, I think I’ll stick with creme brûlée, but what ever.
I love watermelon just as much as the next person, but he buys it then leaves for a trip and I am stuck with a plethora of aging watermelon staring at me every time I open the fridge. I finally had to find something to do with it because, frankly, it was taking up too much space in my fridge!
I needed recipes that would use it up quickly and/or make storage easier! Here you go peeps!
Watermelon-Lime Spritzer
4 cups Watermelon, cubed
1 Lime, Juiced
1 Bottle Ginger Beer, I prefer Bedford’s
- Pop your watermelon into the blender, add lime juice and purée.
- Slice remaining lime for garnish
- In your glasses, fill 1/2 with watermelon-lime purée and finish with ginger beer. Garnish with lime slice. Ta-da!
I know, you were thinking something alcoholic right? I’m not a mixologist so I totally wouldn’t know where to start so go for it and share your version in my comments!
PS, if you want to get rid of more watermelon or serve these at a party later, simply purée and freeze the watermelon into ice cube trays, pop into your blender when you need them, purée and you are ready to go!
Watermelon Sorbet
4 cups Watermelon, cubed
1/2 c. Water
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 Lime, juiced
1. In a small pan on medium heat, add sugar and water and cook until sugar is dissolved, then set aside to cool.
2. In your blender, purée watermelon.
3. Add sugar syrup and lime juice and blend well.
4. Pour into 8×8 dish, cover and freeze until firm.
5. Remove from freeze and break into 4″ blocks and purée.
6. Place in airtight container and freeze until serving. Garnish as you like.
Helpful Hints
- Depending on your blender, the sorbet may eventually clog the blades as you purée it. Have a bowl or your container in the freezer to place the sorbet into as you work through the dish. You can also use your ice cream scoop or a large metal spoon to scrape layers off of this proves frustrating.
- If you are like me and serving the sorbet later, I found it helpful to run warm water over my ice cream scoop before using it.
Alternative
As you can see in these photos, there is a wonderfully creamy looking second watermelon sorbet. This was a Watermelon Coconut Sorbet that I made using a recipe I found. This was just as easy to make at the start, but when I went to purée it after or scrape it out of the dish and it wasn’t as easy. Frankly, it was a pain and a mess.
All of my taste-testers hands-down preferred the watermelon sorbet. The funny thing, we all said the same thing. The recipe was too bland. The flavors were lost. You could taste them, but strangely enough neither stood out. You know how it is, you don’t mind a dominate flavor, with a hint of another, but this recipe did neither. Therefore, if you are looking for an alternative, create one. I’m not a chef, just a mom who likes to cook and share.
Happy Summer Peeps!
Lovely