Pickled Watermelon Recipe

Pickled watermelon quarter slices with pickled carrot in a white serving dish

This pickled watermelon recipe is soo good and is a naturally fermented food that is absolutely great and helps with building good bacteria in the gut. It makes a great side for many side dishes.

Course Appetizer, Preserves, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Eastern Europe, Ramona's Cuisine

Diet Gluten Free, Halal, Low Calorie, Low Fat, Vegan

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 0

Pickling time 3

Total Time 3 10

Servings servings

Calories 131kcal

Author Ramona Sebastian

Cost £4

Equipment

jars
chopping board
knife
pot
measuring jug

Ingredients

1 medium watermelon
3 stalks celery with leaves (optional)
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon dill seeds dried or fresh dill plant
1 litre water
1 tablespoon salt non-iodized or kosher or Celtic salt
2 medium zucchinis/ courgettes cut into 4 chunks/halves/quarters
4 medium carrots organic
1 inch horseradish root cut into chunks or pieces

Instructions

Gather all the ingredients and prepare them by washing, chopping, cutting, peeling, or whatever is needed. Have the jars ready too. No need to sterilize these but just give them a good rinse with hot water (from a kettle or a hot water tap).
Place a few celery stalks with leaves (if you choose to add these) at the bottom of each jar. Add one garlic clove per jar. More if you wish. Arrange the best you can the melon slices into the prepared jars, and push in between the melon slices some zucchini chunks and a few carrot chunks or sticks. Do this until all the melon has been jarred. Add the dill seeds and the horseradish root bits in between the melon chunks.
Fill up all jars with water and then pour the water back out into a measuring jug. Hold the top watermelon pieces so that they do not fall out. We do this to know exactly how much water your batch needs and how much salt you need to add.
Once you know the water amount, add 1 tablespoon (25g /0.89oz) salt for each litre of water (see notes for more quantities) and mix until the salt has dissolved. Warm up the water if you wish the watermelon to pickle super fast.
Pour the water and salt back into the jars over the melon, add the remaining ingredients into each jar place the lid, and give each jar a little shake.
Place one jar into a nice and bright spot (into the sun) and the other(s) into a shadowy corner so they will get to pickle a little later. Remember to give these a shake once or twice a day making sure the lid is nice and tight and open the jars twice a day or leave the lid placed on top without tightening it.
So, tighten the lid - shake 2-3 times - open it - place the lid back and leave it loose.
Check every day to see when you like them - the longer they will stay the more fermented and sour they will be. When it reaches the desired level of sourness, refrigerate and serve with your favorite dishes.

Video

Notes

The number of jars needed depends very much on the jar's sizes and the size of the melon.
You will only need one or two small cloves of garlic per jar (for a 500 ml jar)
Add more carrot and zucchini to the last jar if you have less melon for it just to get it filled up.
Salt amount:
- for 2 liters (67.63 fl.oz.) of water - 50g (1.77 oz) salt
- for 1.5 liters (50.72 fl.oz.) of water - 37g (1.31 oz) salt
- for 1 liter (33.81 fl.oz.) of water - 25.0g (0.89 oz) salt
- for 0.5 liter (16.90 fl.oz.) of water - 12.5g (0.46 oz) salt
- for 0.25 liter (8.45 fl.oz.) of water - 7g (0.22 oz) salt

Nutrition