Make the Most Out of Melon Season with 6 Everyday Recipes
Written and Photography by Katie Workman
Friends, there is a whole world out there beyond cantaloupes and honeydews! (Not that there is ANYTHING wrong with juicy, ripe honeydews and cantaloupes!). It’s full-on melon season, and there is a lot to play with!
Charentais Melons have a gray-green rind, orange flesh, and a luscious, flowery aroma. Pepino Melon has a soft, edible golden skin with distinctive purple and greenish-yellow striping. The flesh of the pepino has a delicate scent of vanilla with notes of honey, and its flavor is kind of like a combination of cantaloupe and honeydew melon. The Galia melon looks like a cantaloupe on the outside and honeydew on the inside with light green, smooth-textured flesh and a delicious, sweet flavor. There are so many melons to try this summer – better get started….
Melissa’s carries over a dozen melon varieties, which doesn’t even include the watermelon choices (ever try a Sunshine watermelon? You have to check out the color combo!). Try them in these recipes and give your summer a refreshing kick in the pants! (Also, check out How to Eat Kiwano Melon – another fan favorite.)
Melon-Cucumber Salad with Feta
This amazingly flavorful yet refreshing summer salad is perfect for brunch, picnics, buffets, you name it. This recipe is great with almost any type of melon, but most notably Galia melon, which is lovely. There are so many melons to try: Crenshaw, Lemon Drops and Waterloupe, a new cantaloupe-watermelon hybrid that tastes like cantaloupe with watermelon’s texture.
View Melon-Cucumber Salad with Feta Recipe
Watermelon Feta Salad
Sweet melon combines beautifully with tangy, salty feta, slivered onions, and mint in this inimitable summer salad. You can use any watermelon, but seedless watermelons make the eating experience so much better—seedless yellow, orange, Midnight and Sunshine watermelons peak in flavor and availability by early July.
View Watermelon Feta Salad Recipe
Grilled Pork Loin with Brown Rice Salad
A perfect year-round entertaining dish, with the surprise of melon in the rice salad. I use cantaloupe, but you can use whichever melon is in season. Charentais melons are especially nice because they are consistently tender, sweet, and available year-round.
View Grilled Pork Loin with Brown Rice Salad Recipe
Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie
If you make one icy smoothie drink this summer, it should be this refreshing and colorful one. The key is to freeze your fruit well beforehand and sweeten it with a touch of agave or honey. Buy frozen berries, or freeze them fresh yourself. This icy drink will cool you down even when it’s scorching hot.
View Watermelon Strawberry Smoothie Recipe
Watermelon Kimchi
Here some of the classic flavors of a kimchi marinade (and some twists on those flavors) get married up with peeled and slivered watermelon rind. This is a great way to use the entire watermelon and not let a single bit go to waste.
View Watermelon Kimchi Recipe 
Corn, Cucumber and Cantaloupe Salsa
This fruity salsa is super pretty and a nice summery change of pace alongside that bowl of tortilla chips. Really, any variety of melon will work in this recipe. Try Crenshaw, casaba and Canary melons to mix it up for a familiar yet different flavor.
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