Watermelon Granita

Today is so exciting!  I have teamed up with some of my favorite bloggy friends to bring you:

1. Melissa of Hollyhocks & Honeybees

2. Emily of The Benson Street 

3. Candice of She’s Crafty

4. Ashley of flats to flip flops

5. Adrienne of Free Time Frolics

6. Andie of Maybe I Will 

7. Kaylynn of Among the Young 

Here we go! Today, I’m sharing a family favorite : a watermelon granita. What’s that? Kelsey described it as a “Grown Up Slushy.” We found this recipe from Kelsey’s Essentials.

I felt a special connection to Kelsey because we both attended Brigham Young University and we were both Cougarettes. We weren’t on the team at the same time, but I saw her on campus frequently and she was always so sweet to me. I was the stalker wanna-be Cougarette and she was the cute, bubbly, talented girl on the team I so desperately wanted to be a part of.

ANYWAY! When I saw this recipe on her show, I was so intrigued because it was a) easy and b) a great way to use up a bunch of watermelon and c) it looked beyond delicious. Again, the thought of a “grown up slushy” was so exciting to me. YUM. You can look at Kelsey’s recipe HERE – I made some small changes to make it a little easier.

Print Recipe

Watermelon Granita

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Drink

Cuisine: American

Author: Kelsey Nixon

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 6 cups roughly chopped seedless watermelon about 2 pounds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 lime zested
• 1 2-inch piece ginger divided
• Fleur de sel for garnish (I used regular sea salt - it was delightful)

Instructions

• For the ginger: , 1-inch cut into coins, 1-inch peeled and grated (I used my Gourmet Garden ginger instead - about 1/2 tsp)

  In a blender, blend the lime juice and watermelon together, creating watermelon water.
• Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer to remove any seeds.
• Place 1/2 cup of the watermelon water into a saucepan and add the sugar, lime zest and ginger.
• Bring the mixture to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and infuse the liquid with the ginger and lime flavor.
• Set aside to cool.
• Add the grated ginger to the remaining watermelon water.
• Once the syrup is cool, remove the ginger coins and mix into the watermelon water.
• Pour the mixture into a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish.
• Place the dish into the freezer to chill.
• Every 30 minutes, scrape the mixture with a fork to break up the ice crystals and to keep it light and fluffy.
• Continue scraping every 30 minutes for at least 2 hours.
• Scrape the granita into elegant glasses and sprinkle with fleur de sel.(Or don't!)