Check Out These Melons! (Watermelon & Lemon Granita)

Mmm, watermelon. The Hub doesn't like watermelon, so I often find summer watermelons pass me by as I do not want to buy slices of watermelon on those awful Styrofoam grocery store plates wrapped in yards of plastic wrap.

But this year, I found mini-watermelon! How cute! I adore them. I bought two. One to eat plain as is, and one to play with. This is the recipe I came up with. I used the empty halves as bowls. Again, how cute! In the end, the husband dug this dessert and liked watermelon for the first time.

Watermelon & Lemonade Granita
Insanely cold and refreshing. With a texture like snow!


1 small organic watermelon
1 cup lemonade
1/2 a lime

1) Scoop out the watermelon, and pick out the black seeds.
2) Mash the watermelon with a potato masher or fork, or you can use a blender. (If you want really fine-textured granita, strain once you've finished mashing. I like chunks of frozen watermelon, so I did not strain.)
3) Add the lemonade. Squeeze in the juice of half a lime. Mix together.
4) Pour into a shallow metal container, such as a baking dish. Put in the freezer.
5) Check in every half hour or so, and use a fork to scrape into a texture like snow.
6) If you want to, serve in the emptied halves of the mini watermelon. Just be sure to slice off a little of the ends of each half to create a flat area on which the watermelon bowl can sit and stay balanced.

Meaner, Greener, Leaner!
* There's no need for extra added sugar. If you buy a nice organic lemonade, then it will probably be sweetened with agave. If you don't have lemonade, then you can make your own with the juice of one lemon, a two-thirds cup of water, and agave to taste (start with a teaspoon).
* There's no cooking! So the main energy used here is with the freezer.
* It's low in calories with tons of vitamin A and vitamin C. Check out the nutritional analysis of watermelon here.

Here are more pictures from the process.

My lovely green baby...


Nice watermelon flesh, firm but tender. I sliced little coins off the ends so my watermelon bowls would sit still in a balanced way.


Watermelon bowls almost complete!



The mixture after it's been frozen and scraped into granita...



A nice bowl of dessert!



A close-up.