Watermelon Rind Marmalade

I can see some of you thinking, Watermelon Rind Marmalade? Yes. The watermelon is a fruit of which almost every part can be eaten. The flesh, of course is edible. So are the seeds, just like pumpkin seeds. Once you peel the outermost green coloured skin, the rind can be used in many ways. They can be pickled, cooked into curry, sun-dried and made into preserves. The green skin, the only inedible part of the watermelon, can be composted.

Summer is here and there’s watermelon everywhere you look. It’s a summer staple in my home. Chilled watermelon is a thirst quencher like nothing else. I also have it as juice, coolers, chilled gazpacho soup (recipe coming soon), sorbet, etc.

So there’s plenty of watermelon rind on hand. One of my favourite things to make is Watermelon Rind Marmalade. It’s an easy recipe and the most effort is perhaps in chopping the watermelon rind. The rind itself has very little flavour, and takes on whatever flavour is added to it. Chop the Watermelon Rind into small pieces to avoid big bits in your Marmalade. The Rind has a slight bite to it as it does not soften up completely after cooking.

I like dropping in the lime halves into the Marmalade while it cooks for added pectin. You can avoid this if you don’t like the slight bitterness in your Marmalade. Use only the orange skins. About 3/4 cup sugar should be enough. You can use 1 cup sugar if you like a very sweet Marmalade. I add a little butter at the end because it gives a shine to the Marmalade. It’s optional.

This Marmalade will not thicken quite like commercial Marmalade because there’s no extra pectin. It will be thick enough to spread. It tastes great with toast, on crackers with cheese, and even on the side with chappathis and parathas.

Watermelon Rind Marmalade

A summer time marmalade made with the rind of watermelons, orange and lime juice and flavoured with the warmth of allspice.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course condiments

Cuisine global vegetarian

Servings 2 small jars

Ingredients

  

• 1 cups medium watermelon about 4chopped rind
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1/4 cup fresh unsweetened orange juice 1 orange
• 2 piece ”of ginger grated
• 2 limes
• 3/4 cup to 1sugar
• 1 tsp allspice powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter optional

Instructions

 

• Leave a little of the red flesh (a very thin layer) when removing the flesh. Then peel off the green outer skin so only the white and pink rind is left. Chop this into small pieces. A medium watermelon should give you about 4 cups of chopped rind pieces.
  
• Put the chopped rind, the orange zest and juice, grated ginger, juice of the limes and 1 cup water into a thick bottomed and largish pot. Bring to a boil and turn down the heat. Drop the halves of the orange (and the limes if you’re using them) into the pot. Let the mixture simmer until the rind is cooked and the liquid has reduced to about 1/4 cup.
  
• Remove the orange and lime skins. Mix in the sugar, the allspice powder and the salt. Let it cook and the mixture thicken a bit. Stir in the butter and take the pot off the stove.
• Let it cool. Transfer to sterile glass jars.