From Nose to Tail.

It was at the same international grocery where I found fava beans and raw Ethiopian coffee that I came across a snack I’ve never seen before: roasted watermelon seeds. Hmmm. Why not? We roast the seeds of their family members at Halloween, after all.

I’ve always found the slaughtering of a whole watermelon to be such a wasteful process, keeping only the pleasing flesh and discarding the skin and innards. Finding those seeds gave me the idea to see if I could use every part of the melon, which I attempted today. Here’s what came out of it:

I followed these instructions for a method of butchering that easily separates the insides. 

That worked, so I scooped out the seeds from each section and divided them from the pulp, sorting them into two containers. Then I cut up all of the watermelon I wanted to preserve for eating. 

After that, I took all the rinds and scooped all of the remaining flesh into my bowl of already reserved pulp. (The rinds should have little or no flesh left on them when you’re done, by the way.)

I continued by peeling each rind, then slicing them into thin strips. I was left with five containers when it was all over: seeds, chopped watermelon, sliced rind, pulp with juice, and a fraction of the waste. 

The excess went into my garden to feed it, and the rest played out like this:

I roasted the seeds using these instructions. I added lime juice and a pinch of Aleppo pepper to the water to give the seeds some zest. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.

I made a salad dressing with the pulp and juice (recipe below), started a batch of watermelon rind pickles using this recipe (it takes several days, so we’ll just have to trust these folks), and then I ate the watermelon, except for about a cup that will go in a spinach salad with sliced red grapes, roasted watermelon seeds, and my new dressing!       

For the dressing, here's what you need:

 

1½ cups of watermelon pulp with juice

The juice of one lime

2 tablespoons of honey

⅓ cup grapeseed oil

½ cup of champagne vinegar

½ -1 teaspoon of ground sea salt, to taste

Several pinches of ground green and pink peppercorns or peppercorn mélange

Several small slices of a cherry bomb chile

Here's what to do:

 

Puree watermelon with the lime juice and honey in a food processor or blender. Strain to yield about 1 cup of juice. Pour juice into a dressing jar and add the remaining ingredients. Shake well and refrigerate for several hours. 

All taste and no waste—woot!