Watermelon Ice Cream: the healthy, refreshing recipe for your summer

This Watermelon Ice Cream is an easy, healthy, refreshing dessert recipe—perfect for summer. It’s packed with vitamins, has a fruity, sweet flavor, and is slightly creamy. With this recipe, you can expect a full-on watermelon taste—no additives. It’s rich in antioxidants, with no added sugars. Watermelon is the quintessential summer fruit and is high in vitamins A, C, and, B. And milk adds some calcium, so you know this is good for you.

To make watermelon ice cream at home, you don’t need any fancy equipment nor ice cream maker. You simply blend watermelon in a blender with milk and lemon juice. As easy as that! Keep a pack of frozen watermelon in the freezer and you’ll always be ready to make some ice cream!

Watermelon Ice Cream Ingredients

Watermelon – Use a ripe watermelon, as it will be sweeter. When shopping for watermelons, look for a heavy watermelon – the heavier, the riper it is. If it has a yellow spot on the surface, it means the watermelon spent more time ripening, so it will be sweeter. You can also tap it gently while holding it up. If it sounds hollow, it’s ripe and ready to eat. You also want to look out for a watermelon that is slightly dull green, these will be sweeter. Just make sure to pick the right one as you need to freeze it.

Milk – use any milk you like, either dairy or non-dairy milk.

Lemon juice – adds a bit of tartness to the ice cream, and also thins out the mixture

How To Make Watermelon Ice Cream

Prepare the watermelon by removing the green and white outer skin, and scooping out the seeds. Cut into pieces. Transfer the pieces to a resealable plastic bag like (a Ziploc). And place in the freezer for 12 hours.

When you're ready to serve the ice cream, place the frozen watermelon in the blender. Add the lemon juice and milk and blend until smooth. Transfer the ice cream to a container, seal, and store until you’re ready to serve, or serve scoops of ice cream immediately in a glass.

Tips

Depending on whether you like your ice cream creamy or icier, you can play around with the liquid you add. Add heavy cream or use condensed milk if you want the sweeter, creamier ice cream. You can also play around with different flavors. Why not use vanilla-flavored ice cream or use plain milk and add vanilla essence?

You can also blend the watermelon with other frozen fruits. Try blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, or bananas. Using bananas will make the ice cream creamier.

Swap the cream for coconut cream if you want to make it vegan.

You can even add mini chocolate chips which will look like the watermelon seeds.

How To Store Watermelon Ice Cream

The ice cream is best served immediately, but leftovers can be stored in the freezer for up to a week.

If you want to prepare the ice cream ahead of time, simply keep the frozen watermelon pieces in the freezer until you’re ready to blend them.

More Healthy Desserts You'll Like

• Watermelon Popsicles
• Pineapple Coconut Popsicles
• Yogurt Plum Ice Cream

Instructions

Remove the skin and seeds from a watermelon. Cut into pieces.

Place the watermelon pieces in a Ziploc bag, the freeze for 12 hours.

Transfer the frozen watermelon to a blender.

Add the lemon juice and milk, and blend until smooth.

Transfer the watermelon ice cream out of the blender into a container.

When ready to serve, scoop out the ice cream and serve in a glass.

Notes

Did you know, you can eat watermelon seeds? Contrary to popular belief that a watermelon will grow inside your tummy, watermelon seeds are perfectly safe to eat.