Watermelon Sorbet from Scratch

I came up with this quick and easy sorbet when we lived in Azerbaijan.  It's the perfect way to make use of the abundant watermelon this time of year and satisfy your sweet tooth without breaking the calorie bank.  All you need is a work horse food processor, watermelon and banana and some time.

So, get yourself to the market and buy yourself a melon or two.  In our case, we aren't talking about the nearest Whole Foods or Stop-n-Shop.  We talking one of the open air fruit and veg bazaars.  Heaven!

This is ridiculously easy.  Split the melon in half.

Scoop the flesh into chunks.  I used a melon baller, but a spoon or a measuring tablespoon works just fine.  I picked out the seeds if they were easy to get at but didn't worry about most of them.  

Line up the watermelon chunks on a jelly roll pan -- or something with a lip to catch the juice -- and put it into the freezer until fully frozen.  At this point you can then toss the individual frozen chunks into a ziplock bag or a tupperware and grab a handful at any point.  This is an important step if you don't want one huge mass of frozen watermelon!

Make sure you catch the juice as you go through this step.  Pure watermelon juice.  Perfection.

Pour over some ice and you've got yourself an agua fresca, a deliciously refreshing byproduct!

This sorbet is meant to be eaten right away.  So, once the melon is frozen and you are ready for your sorbet, measure out about 2 cups of frozen melon and half a banana for one serving.  

Put the frozen melon into the food processor.




And whizz it for a good two or three minutes (depending on your machine) until it's broken down into fine chunks, almost like light pink ice crystals.




Now add half of a room temperature banana, in chunks.

Process on high, scraping the sides as needed, for about another 2 or 3 minutes.  

Keep this up until the melon-banana mixture becomes like soft serve ice cream.  Don't be tempted to over process it and melt the watermelon too much.  It's a fine line!  Not really, but the goal is a frozen treat and not a liquid drink.

Once the right consistency, put it into your serving dish/bowl and consume.

And there you go, the perfect mid-summer treat to cool yourself down.