Foodgeek Blog

I tried kind of an interesting recipe the other day. (By “tried a recipe” I mean I looked at a bunch of recipes and then decided to wing it.) I was making dinner at a friend’s house, and he told me about a recipe for Watermelon Soup he’d run across on the internet. I thought it sounded interesting and gave it a shot.

Here’s my (sort of) recipe:

     1 watermelon, as round as possible

     1 pineapple, rind removed, cut into chunks

     1 mango, peeled, cut into chunks

     the juice of 2 lemons

     the juice of 1 orange

     fresh mint, finely minced

First thing’s first: Fruit soup = puree. I’ve never found an exception. Cut the top off of the watermelon, maybe a third of the way down. Hollow out the bottom part (bet you can guess why.) Here’s where I goofed: I pureed the entire watermelon, figuring it would lose some volume due to juice being lost. Don’t puree the entire thing. I don’t know exactly how much, but I’d guess two-thirds (not including the “lid”) should be pureed. Puree most of the pineapple and most of the mango. Mix the purees together, and add the remaining chunks of pineapple and mango, and a handful or two of the watermelon. (None of the recipes called for this, but I thought it would make things interesting.) Add the citrus juice and mint.

Now the fun part: Put the soup back into the watermelon, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for a few hours. Overnight would be better. If you’re concerned about the stability of the “bowl,” take the top you cut off and cut the top half off. You’ll be left with a ring that you can use to stabilize the bowl on the table.

Like I said, I was flying by the seat of my culinary pants (that sounded stranger than I expected), but it actually came out really well. If you’re not a mango or mint person, don’t fret. Neither am I, and I still loved it.