Watermelon slush recipe
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Total: 8 min Diners: 5
This watermelon granita is, without a doubt, almost a NO recipe. Why? Because it is tremendously easy but at the same time it will give you a lot of joy. Perhaps it is not properly a slush or rather we could pigeonhole it as that kind of versatile recipe that is good for a slush but also for a sorbet, depending on how we work the cold in it which is what matters most when freezing at home.
Ingredients
Watermelon, 500 g Sugar, 90 g Water, 125 ml Lemon juice, 3 tablespoons Sour cherries in syrup, 6 units
Tips for consuming watermelon in summer
Watermelon is a fruit that contains a large amount of water and very few calories, so do not hesitate to introduce it in all kinds of dishes, both sweet and savory. It will help you stay well hydrated on hot days and its sweet taste will help you avoid the temptation to consume other less healthy soft drinks.
In sweet recipes, you can use it in smoothies, ice cream and slushies, you can even make pieces about the size of a popsicle, put a stick in them and freeze them. In a few hours you will have the healthiest ice cream pops you can eat.
In savory recipes, you can prepare salads and cold soups or gazpachos, and for this you can take advantage of those watermelons that turn out to be a little greener than you expected and still do not have much flavor. A little oil, salt and vinegar, will greatly enhance its flavor and will result in a satiating, refreshing dish with very few calories.
How to choose the best watermelons
If you are not very skilled in the art of choosing watermelons, do not worry, it’s actually easier than it seems and once you read what the tricks are you usually get it right almost every time and when not, you get pretty close.
To pick a watermelon at its peak,
When you tap it with your knuckles it should sound “hollow”. Because of its large size, it is common in some greengrocers sell them in pieces, if we decide to buy it this way, it is advisable to make sure that the flesh is firm and juicy. If we are not going to consume it quickly, the best choice are seedless watermelons or low in seeds, since it is around these where the watermelon starts to go bad. As with melons, you will know if a watermelon is ripe if the spot on the rind that has been in contact with the ground is yellow. A white or greenish stain indicates that it was picked early and will be bland.
How to make a homemade watermelon slush
.Many times, when we face the challenge of making ice cream at home the most important factor to take into account is the crystallization of the same in non-professional freezers, especially if we do not have an ice cream maker that sometimes – all be said – is a junk that we will not give much use but it will bulge a precious space of our kitchens.
The key? Stirring our sorbet very frequently while it crystallizes in the freezer and if we wanted to make it creamier we could help us with other types of sweeteners such as invert sugar or dextrose and also with a little bit of locust bean gum that will give us that elasticity needed to make a good sorbet. In the recipe I have not included these ingredients because it is not so easy to find them but if you had the possibility to use them, for these quantities I would recommend adding 3 g of locust bean gum and reduce the syrup to half the quantity by adding 50 g of invert sugar.
Step 1
The first thing to do is to prepare the syrup by putting the sugar and water in a saucepan to boil. When it comes to a boil, leave it over low heat for 3 minutes and remove it from the heat, cooling it completely before using it.
Step 2
Peel the watermelon, cut it into small pieces and remove all the seeds. In a bowl or in a blender glass put the watermelon flesh, the lime juice, the syrup and the cherries with a spoonful of their own syrup and mash everything very well. Here is when we could also add the invert sugar and the garrofin gum. Mash very very well until it is a puree.
Step 3
Place in a pie dish and put in the freezer for about 6 hours. If we want a slush with ice chunks, we will not need to stir it during that time, we will simply have to scrape it once it is frozen to remove the small blocks of watermelon ice. If instead we want a sorbet it is best to stir every hour, so that the mixture does not crystallize.
