Watermelon MANIA!

Taste Quest is ringing in the summer the best way we know how—(water)Melon Mania! We thought we’d share two of our favorite watermelon recipes for you and your family to enjoy. Play-based learning is kind of our thing, so be sure to play the sensory game under the pico de gallo recipe!

Watermelon Pico de Gallo

Ingredients

• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 cups diced watermelon
• 1 ripe mango, diced
•  3 T chopped cilantro
• ½ red onion, diced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, combine watermelon, mango, cilantro, and red onion. Season with lime juice and salt and pepper, to taste.
2. Serve with tortilla chips and/or crudités.

Foodie Game
Taste Quest is all about experiencing food with all 5 senses. For this challenge you’ll need one piece of paper and one writing utensil per participant. Each salsa ingredient (except for salt and pepper) will be a separate round of the game. Give the group 30 seconds to observe the first ingredient, making note of how each of the senses experiences that ingredient. Taste it, touch it (with clean hands!), smell it, hear it (get creative here), and look at it. Once the observation period is over, set the ingredient aside. Give the group 30 seconds to jot down single-word descriptors of that ingredient, trying to describe it with each of the senses [example with lime: astringent (taste), dimpled (touch), splatter (sound), vibrant (appearance), fresh (smell)]. Write down as many words as you can think of during the 30-second time period. Finally, compare notes. Each participant gets one point per unique word they came up with. Meaning if two participants write the same word, nobody gets the point. The trick here is to be creative so no one comes up with the same word as you. Try this for each ingredient, then tally up the points. The person with the most points gets to toss the salsa!

Watermelon-Mint Spritz (kid-friendly, of course.)

Ingredients

• ½ watermelon
• 1 bunch mint leaves
• 1-2 liters unflavored sparkling water

Preparation

1. Cut watermelon into large chunks.
2. Rinse mint and remove leaves from stem.
3. Place chunks of watermelon and mint leaves into a blender, being careful to not overfill. Blend until watermelon is smooth.
4. Chill watermelon mixture for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours. The longer it chills, the stronger the mint flavor will be. The mixture will separate during chilling, just give it a stir when you’re ready to proceed to the next step.
5. The juice can be served pulp-free, or with pulp for our version of an agua fresca. To strain, pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth.
6. Serve over ice with 1-part watermelon juice, 1-part sparkling water.

Tip: Our favorite recipes are the ones that call for getting our hands a little messy. Straining through cheese cloth is a great job for a budding chef. Place the cheese cloth over a bowl (the bigger the bowl, the smaller the mess), hold the cloth while you pour the watermelon mixture, then squeeze the cloth until the dripping stops.

Show us how you do MDW by sharing a picture of your watermelon creation and tagging us on Facebook or Instagram @TastequestHQ.