It’s the end of summer and watermelon is in season. I love watermelon, but usually don’t buy them because I hate carrying them home from the grocery store. One of those peculiar inconveniences of living in New York City. Well this week I just really wanted some watermelon so I made the extra effort and pretended it counted as an extra workout. I’ve also been into reducing food waste lately as well. So, after slicing up my watermelon and looking at all the leftover rind, I got to thinking, is there something I can do with this? Out came the computer and to google search I went. To my surprise I found countless recipes, from sweet to savory, ranging from curry to pickles! With summer BBQs on my mind I surveyed all the pickle recipes I could find and trimmed them down to the below. With limited spices, patience, and rind (NYC watermelons are much smaller than the behemoth suburban variety) I opted for the shortest and simplest combination I could devise. One thing to consider is to peel the rind or not. I chose not to, it gave my pickles a bit more texture/crunch, but many recipes suggest to peel the outer green skin off.
Sweet & Spicy Watermelon Rind Pickles
Ingredients
- 8 Cups water
- 2 TBSP salt
- 5 Cups watermelon rind leave a thin layer of pink, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 Cup sugar
- 1 Cup white vinegar
- 12 Cloves
- 1 tsp pickling spice
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- ½ tsp ginger
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a large pot bring the 8 cups of water and salt to a boil
- Add the watermelon rind to the water and boil for 5 to 10 minutes until tender. It will look slightly translucent.
- When ready strain the rind in a colander ensuring all of the salt water drains off.
- In a small saucepan combine the sugar, vinegar, peppercorns, red pepper, cloves, pickling spice, and ginger.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes or so, until slightly reduced.
- Place the watermelon rinds into two regular sized mason jars and pour the hot liquid evenly between the two containers.
- Let the pickles cool on the counter until the liquid is at room temperature. If you refrigerate them too soon the sugar in the liquid may crystalize.
- Once the pickles are cool refrigerate and enjoy for up to 2 weeks.
