Hooray for summer with my vegan watermelon jelly recipe,
Watermelon is one of my favorite summer fruits. So sweet and refreshing, it satisfies me more than ice cream. This time, instead of sticking to the usual watermelon juice, I turned it into jelly.
In Sicily, watermelon jelly is decorated with pistachios and chocolate. I prepared a simple version, just with a bit of rice cream and a hint of lemon verbena.
Watermelon jelly, or melon jelly as it’s called in its Sicilian homeland, is so fresh and sweet!
“U’ muluna” is the dialectal name used by Palermo locals for watermelon, a fruit abundantly grown in Sicily, reaching full ripeness and excellent taste during the summer period.
Together with “fragoloni,” watermelon is one of the seasonal fruits most sold along the streets, where it’s easy to encounter fruit vendors set up on sidewalks with their ape motorcycles or classic transport trucks, surrounded by tall stacks of watermelons, some already cut open and ready to be tasted before being bought by a potential customer.
There are those who claim that the origins of melon jelly can be attributed to the Arberesch, who, coming from Albania, settled in areas of Sicily where they still reside today, maintaining the customs and traditions of their homeland and using the abundant water resources of the areas they settled in for the cultivation of fruits requiring large amounts of water, like watermelon.
But it is more likely that this delicacy dates back to the time of Arab domination in Sicily, and its fragrances, in which the unmistakable aroma of watermelon is enriched by the scents of chocolate, pistachios, and jasmine, can only confirm it. (from provedi.it)
In Sicily, watermelon jelly is decorated with pistachios and chocolate. I prepared a simple version, just with a bit of rice cream and a hint of lemon verbena.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Summer, Fall, Summer
Vegan Watermelon Jelly Ingredients
- 12 oz watermelon (juice)
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- drops lemon
- 1/2 cup rice cream
- 5 leaves aromatic herb (lemon verbena)
Vegan Watermelon Jelly Steps
Cut the watermelon into pieces and pass it through a juicer or blender.
Put the juice in a saucepan with a few drops of lemon and some lemon verbena leaves.
Add agave syrup if you want it sweeter and start warming slowly, sprinkle in the cornstarch while stirring with a whisk to avoid lumps and let it simmer gently for a few minutes until it becomes creamy. Remove the leaves.
Transfer it into glasses and let it cool, place in the fridge for a couple of hours before decorating with vegetable cream and lemon verbena sprigs.With Bimby:
Cut the watermelon into pieces and pass it through a juicer or blender
Transfer the juice into the bowl, add the lemon drops, agave if you prefer it sweeter, the lemon verbena leaves, and the cornstarch, cook for 6 minutes at 90°C, speed 3, counter-clockwise.
Remove the leaves, transfer it into glasses and let it cool, place in the fridge for a couple of hours before decorating with vegetable cream and lemon verbena sprigs.
Tips
You can add pistachios, dark chocolate as in the original Sicilian recipe. Mint if you prefer it to lemon verbena
