Our CSA grew watermelons this year, and we got the first of the harvest. Since it was limited to one per family, I wanted to make the most our of it. We enjoyed the flesh as is on two warm afternoons, and I reserved the rinds to make pickles.
Why pickles? I had heard a friend talking several times about how the rind could be pickled, and it made me curious. So I went off to look for a recipe, and I came across one from Alton Brown, that I modified slightly to our taste: less ginger, more spice!
Ingredients
- 900 gr of watermelon rind, cut into 2-3 cm squares
- 240 ml apple cider vinegar (I had to use about 80 ml plain alcohol vinegar because I didn’t have enough apple cider vinegar)
- 240 ml water
- 150 gr cane sugar
- 20 gr candied ginger, cut into small pieces
- 25 gr salt
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 star anis pods
Instructions
- Put all ingredients except rind in a pan, bring to a boil and cook for a minute.
- Add the watermelon rind, bring back to a boil, lower to simmer for 2 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the rind cool off in the pickle liquid.
- Transfer everything to one or two jars (should fill about one 1L jar), and refrigerate overnight.
Enjoy!
Keeps a month in the fridge – pickles must be refrigerated.
