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WATERMELON RIND CURRY

By Chef Kumar Chalise

Innovate your watermelon rind into an easy, delicious, and covid time pass tasty curry!

Gluten-free, and allergy-friendly recipe! Pleasure the curry alongside rice (bhuja/bhaat/chamre/kaguno/chyakhla) or sides of your accompaniments.

Tarkari word is a variety of dishes originating in Nepal that use a complex combination of spices or herbs, usually including turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, and fresh or dried chilies. Curry has traveled worldwide, and every region has its own expounding of a curry. This recipe really got me thinking about how we simply throw away can be transformed into a healthy, tasty, meal-worthy dish.

Eat the watermelon rind; the rind has a surprising amount of health benefits. While it doesn’t have a tremendous amount of nutrients, according to Live Strong, it’s high in vitamins B and C. Plus, eating something you typically would have discarded cuts down on waste. This pandemic time, I am thoroughly engaging and learning new recipes. A perfectly ripe, lightly sweet, tangy, and juicy watermelon is excellent by itself. If you need something totally new and refreshing, perhaps try watermelon with black salt.

Watermelon is rich in citrulline organ, an amino acid that relaxes and dilates blood vessels. It has also been shown to reduce muscle soreness in athletes and might even help fight free radicals. The rind of watermelon just so happens to contain more of this amino acid than the juicy red flesh we’re used to eating. So, watermelon rind is good for you, don’t waste the rinds, folks. Then utilize the rind, which would otherwise end up in a trash can or compost bin, to make this easy and delicious watermelon rind curry.

I served the watermelon rind curry with some rice flakes and coriander chutney, but feel free to serve it with rice or other grains of your choice.

Recipe:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons clarified butter or mustard oil

1 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds

2 whole red chilies

1 tablespoon ginger crushed

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

1kg cubed young watermelon rind, only the white part

(Tough green skin removed and cut into bite pieces)

½ kg dice cut potatoes

1 cup of warm water

2 tablespoon local paste from

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 green chili

½ teaspoon salt and 2tablespoon water

2 tablespoon fresh salt and 2tablespoon water

2 tablespoon fresh coriander chopped or melon dice for garnish

Method:

  1. Collect all ingredients and tools. Heat the butter/oil in the thick medium size pan and fry fenugreek seeds and red chilies until fragrant.
  2. Add ginger crushed and sauté for few seconds, stirring gently.
  3. Add potatoes, watermelon rind to the pan. Add turmeric powder, salt and cook uncovered for 3 minutes.
  4. Add local paste, cover and cook until potatoes and water melon rind soft.
  5. Slowly add 1 cup warm water to the pan, lower the heat and cover the pan for few minutes.
  6. Simmer until watermelon rind softens (but not mushy), then turn off the heat.
  7. Check the taste and adjust any seasonings and garnish with chopped fresh coriander. Transfer the curry in to a serving bowl and serve warm with accompaniments.

Chef tips: You can also brown some meat and mix it in with this watermelon rind curry to make a meal.