Watermelon rind curry is one of my favourites in the zero-waste cooking field. Watermelon rind is usually thrown away, so when I found out that there are multiple recipes that can be made with the rind, I was very excited. There were multiple sweet options but I wanted to go for savoury and avoid sugar. I decided to make it in a traditional Kerala manner. Pulissery is usually made with ash gourd, but now my family likes this so much that I have started buying watermelon only for the rind.
When I visited a food fest 4 years ago, I first encountered zero-waste cooking. A stall was using carrot as the main dish and used the peels as crumbles. This was the first time I realized I could use every part of the vegetable. It reduces food wastage and cost and has made me conscious of what I do with my food waste. I also use the water that comes from cooking vegetables for my plants.
How to make watermelon rind curry in 3 steps?
- Boil watermelon rind and raw mango with salt and turmeric.
- Add ground coconut paste and cook.
- Temper with mustard, curry leaves and chillies.
What to serve with?
A perfect side dish with rice for a comfort meal. Serve it for sadhya or with a veg thali. Watermelon rind curry along with varatharacha black channa and cheera thoran with pappad and pickle is my ultimate comfort food.
Check out other veg dishes like bittergourd masala and zero-waste dishes like potato and cauliflower stem fry.
Watermelon Rind Curry / Pulissery
Ingredients
Instructions
-
After peeling and removing the red fleshy parts of watermelon, cut the rind into 2" cubes.
-
Cut a raw mango into cubes.
-
Mix rind and mango in an earthen pot. Pour 2 cups of water, turmeric and 1/2 tsp of salt and boil until rind is cooked. To check if rind is cooked, insert a knife and it should easily go through it.
-
Meanwhile grind coconut, raw rice, peppercorns, cumin, green chillies, 3 curry leaves with water to a fine paste.
-
Add the ground paste to cooked rind and mango and boil for a few minutes. Add water if needed. Adjust salt and take off the flame.
-
Splutter mustard seeds in coconut oil, add curry leaves and red chillies and pour over the curry.
Note
Substitutions - Watermelon rind can be substituted for ash gourd. Recipe can be scaled up for large quantities.
Raw mango - Make sure to use real sour ones for flavour. If you don't want the curry to be too sour, increase the quantity of rind to 330 gms and add only 20 gms of raw mango.
Ground paste - Coconut and other ingredients should be ground to a very fine paste either in a grinder or on a stove.
Storing - Once the curry cools to room temperature, transfer to airtight container and store in the fridge for upto 3 days. Bring to room temperature, warm it up on low flame and temper before serving.
