Watermelon rind pickles are an old-fashioned specialty, but they’re not the only way to enjoy this oft-wasted part of the fruit.
PandanExpress says her mother slices the inner rinds thinly (discard the green outer shell) and stir-fries them with garlic, salt, and soy sauce. “It ends up tasting like a pickled vegetable,” she says. “Delicious.” madkittybadkitty adds a bit of ground pork and cut-up shrimp to her stir-fried rinds.
madkittybadkitty also chops watermelon rinds and adds them to salsa, or shaves them and tosses them with either a mint and yogurt dressing or sesame noodles. Pei slices them paper-thin and marinates them in a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, and water.
Board Link: Water melon rind
One of my childhood favorites was a sandwich of watermelon rind preserves and butter!
i love this. i always feel bad putting the rinds in the compost, but i don’t always have the time or gumption to pickle them. and @chezdbirds i love the idea of watermelon rind preserves. what were they like?