Name: Watermelon Rind Stir Fry
Ingredients: 2 cups watermelon rind, julienned (white part only, from about 1/2 of a seedless watermelon); 1 cup julienned carrots; 1 inch piece of ginger, minced; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1/2 cup chives, cut into 3 inch pieces; 1 tablespoon honey; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1 tablespoon fish sauce; 2 teaspoons sesame oil; 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn; 1/4 cup mint leaves; 1/4 cup cilantro leaves; Serving crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Word of warning Asians do not use sesame oil for direct cooking. It is one of the oils with the lowest smoke points, instead it is used sparingly at the end to introduce flavor. Use any neutral vegetable oil to fry this instead.

Thank you for this insight. It works well enough for us at home when we make it in our kitchens, as a couple of us make this regularly. But we’ll try your suggestion to test it out and compare.

Taste delicious!
Thank you.

Yummy, easy to make, I love that you can improvise these kinds of recipes to suit your budget and available ingredients.

I didn’t add the carrots, cause I was a bit lazy. I didn’t have basil(once you use fresh, you do not care much for dried) , and I was once again too lazy to go to the greenhouse for mint.. i also had to use ground ginger, and dried cilantro .. I didn’t like it at first, so I added more fish sauce , soy sauce and honey. Then I liked it, to the point, I would never through out watermelon rind ever again… though, I’d never order this at a restaurant.. I also really wish I had oriental noodles to go with this.. I’d definitely recommend trying it.. just don’t get your expectations too high.. it’s good though

Fairly simple and surprisingly good. I thought the honey would make it too sweet, but it works really well with the other sauces. I’ll have to try that combination more often. Remember that watermelon runs shrinks a bit when cooked and account for that when planning the amount you want to make. It doesn’t shrink as much as a leafy green, but it still is mostly water so it will lose some volume.

I’d just make a few adjustments for next time:
– add the sesame oil at the end instead of the beginning. The complex flavor of it kind of gets lost during cooking imo. Use a small amount of neutral oil in the beginning or even a bit of water (if you’re reducing your fat intake) to cook the veggies.
– the sauce is very good! I’d make it at least 15 minutes beforehand (or even as early as several hours before if Iremember) to really allow the garlic and ginger to infuse into it. The sauce is also a bit on the salty side with the fish sauce *and* soy sauce, so try to use a lower sodium version of one of them. However, when paired with something like rice, the saltiness of this recipe is not overwhelming.
– The cilantro, mint, and basil are competing with each other in this recipe, so next time I’d use mint + basil or mint + cilantro. But all three isn’t bad either!!
– I bet this would taste very good with the addition of mushrooms. Honestly, the sauce + the mushrooms would make a good side dish by itself lol.

I’m a dietitian and trying to find information about the nutrition facts for watermelon rind, specifically the nutrients that are included in the US nutrition facts panel. Do you have this information? It is not readily available on the USDA website or scientific literature.

I haven’t made this yet, but wanted to comment about the oil. There are 2 kinds of sesame oil…the plain oil, and the toasted variety. The latter is the one with the intense flavor, and used at the end of cooking. The untoasted one should be fine for cooking, but I haven’t checked for it’s smoke point. Avocado is good.

Untoasted sesame oil is good for temperature range of 350-410 degrees, so it is fine for sautéing..

Very good.

My husband and I enjoyed this recipe. It has an Asian flavor to it. I served it with chicken but it would go great with beef or in a stir-fry. I will make it again