Summer is here and with it comes a rainbow bounty of seasonal fruit. One of my favourites being that luscious vermillion globe, heavy with saccharine flesh that’s weeping with blushing nectar. The watermelon. Thanks, Pullitzer, I will take my prize now.

Did you know that watermelon is actually part of the cucumber family? And apparently it originated from Southern Africa, so it’s practically one of the original locals. I like to buy a whole one, roll it home and devour half and use the rest for juice. It’s really refreshing, especially cooled to the point where bits of it are almost frozen (so almost slushified) and if you want to make a grown-up version just pour in some gin or cane rum.

Ingredients
Half a seedless watermelon (if you can find them, otherwise just de-pip), about 4 – 6 cups of chunks, chilled
2 limes, juiced
Handful of fresh mint, washed
2 – 3 tbsp of lemon cordial

Method
Add the lot to a blender and blitz. Taste and add more lime juice or cordial if its too watery. You may need to do this in batches. The resulting mixture will have a lot of fibre in it and be quite frothy. If that bothers you or if you want a much clearer liquid, push it through a sieve. Don’t throw away the fibre and bits of mint left in the sieve. Freeze into cubes in ice trays and toss into smoothies.

Chill in the fridge (or even for a short while in the freezer to get the slushy effect) and serve with some lime, fresh mint and ice.



Handy Tip
A nifty trick to do: I used a melonballer and scooped out some of the watermelon and froze it. You can use this instead of ice when serving the juice. If you don’t have a melonballer, just cube a handful into small, bite-size pieces and freeze those. They freeze beautifully, look fancy and don’t dilutethe drink’s flavour. You can add to cocktails and maybe make a watermelon version of G&T. Bottom’s up!