Refreshing Watermelon Curd Recipe

Watermelon is the unofficial fruit of summer — actually, according to HuffPost, watermelon can be classified as both a fruit and a vegetable, but that's beside the point. Fruit, veggie, or somewhere in between, this brightly colored treat tastes amazing during hot summer months. 

However, eating it can be a bit of a pain. All that juice running down your arm and those sticky patches on your face can be hard to manage. If you've ever thought, "I wish this was easier to eat, perhaps even spreadable ..." you've come to the right place. Recipe developer Susan Olayinka of The Flexible Fridge has devised this genius recipe for watermelon curd. It has all the sweet, fruity flavor of watermelon but the spreadable, creamy texture of curd. What a treat! Olayinka says if you are skeptical of watermelon as a curd ingredient, you have to try it for yourself and see: "Lemon curd is so yesterday! This is so light, summery, and delicious. Watermelon is everyone's favorite fruit, so this will be a hit."

The first step in this process extracting the juice from the watermelon, which will go on to flavor your curd. To do this, take your half of a watermelon and cut it into rough chunks. Place these chunks in a blender or food processor, blending on high for 10 seconds. You don't need to be too particular about the texture of the mixture in this step — just make sure you've broken up most of the pieces. Next, pour the blended watermelon through a mesh sieve and into a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Next, you will add your strained watermelon juice to the egg yolk, sugar, butter, and cornflour mixture. Using a manual whisk, combine the mixture for 30 seconds. If your curd looks a bit lumpy at this stage (as it does in the photo), rest assured. Combining the sugar and butter with the eggs and fruit can produce this texture initially, but those two ingredients will be of great help during the cooking process.

Although some add their butter later down the road, adding butter beforehand helps avoid cooking the eggs too quickly. The sugar does the same thing, although it gets a lot of help from the early addition of butter. Long story short, no butter can equal scrambled eggs and a lumpy curd, while the early addition of the butter ensures a smooth, silky curd after the cooking process.

After all your hard work, your watermelon curd is finally ready! Go ahead and pour it into an airtight container, and place it in the fridge to cool and store. As far as serving suggestions, Olayinka says this can be eaten anywhere you would put lemon curd: "Think scones, cakes, porridges, etc." she says. This spread will add a sweet, bright, fruity kick to anything you put it on, so go crazy! If watermelon is the fruit of the summer, let watermelon curd be the spread!