It is summer time, and watermelon could be found in abundance. When I told my mom casually that I am eating the melon, she gave me this easy and tasty recipe with less efforts to prepare it. After that day, this is my go-to favourite recipe every summer. I didn’t find many recipes cooking with rind, so I thought I will post one.
What is a watermelon rind? It’s that light green or white part just above the dark green skin of the melon (check picture below). Everyone throw away the watermelon rind and eat the sweet red part. But do you know the health benefits of the rind? It contains Vitamin A, B, potassium, magnesium and zinc (courtesy: Google). It doesn’t actually have any taste, which makes it easy to cook with it. It takes in the flavour that you add.
Don’t forget to check my tips after the recipe. Lets get cooking!!!
ingredients:
Watermelon rind – 4 cups (Chopped)
Toor dal (split pigeon peas) – 0.75 cup
Water as required for cooking (1 cup for rind and 2 cups for dal)
Salt as per taste
Ingredients for grinding:
Coconut – 1 cup (grated)
Green chilli – 3
Jeera seeds – 1 teaspoon
Tamarind – 0.5 teaspoon
Coriander leaves – few
Water as required
Ingredients for tempering:
Oil (coconut or cooking oil) – 1 teaspoon
Black mustard seeds – 0.5 teaspoon
Jeera seeds – 0.5 teaspoon
Curry leaves – 10
Preparation:
Wash the watermelon rind, peel the dark outer skin and cut it into small cubes. Take it in a separate container. Add only 1 cup of water for 4 cups of watermelon rind. Add a pinch of salt to it.
Wash and take the dal separately in a different container. I have added 2 cups of water to cook the dal.
Cook the dal and watermelon in a pressure cooker for 4 to 5 whistles and switch off the heat.
Once the pressure cools off, open the cooker. Smash the dal well and keep it aside.
Meanwhile, take all the ingredients for grinding (coconut, green chilli, tmarind, jeera, coriander leaves) and grind it into a smooth paste consistency. Do not add excessive water.
In a cooking pot, take the cooked rind with water in it and the smashed dal and mix well. No need to take any additional water. Switch on the heat, add the paste mixture and salt as per taste. Mix well and bring it to boil. Keep stirring so that it won’t get burnt. The consistency of the stew is thick and not watery.
Temper the ingredients mentioned under tempering and add to it. Mix well, bring it to boil and switch off. Ready to be served hot.
You can either have with chapati or plain rice.
Tips:
– Watermelon rind, just like watermelon fruit, contain lots of water, so do not take lots of water. When you cook the rind, there will be additional water that oozes out, which could be added to the stew.
– While cutting the rind, you might get the pink part of the watermelon, that’s alright, it adds colour to your stew.
– While cooking vegetables, it is important to add some salt to it. This helps the vegetables to soak the salt while cooking.
– You can try the same recipe with banana stem or with any other vegetable of your choice, Let me know, how that turned out in the comments below.
– the proportion of the ingredients may vary as per your taste, try it once and add more of the ingredients when you do again.
Remember, the key is to taste the dish at every stage and experiment with it. Let me know in the comments below about your experiment with this recipe.
Please do like and share this recipe. Happy Cooking!!!
My Little Cooking Experiments 