Looking for a way to use up watermelon rinds? Here’s a delicious way to make Japanese-style pickled watermelon rinds!
I love pickles of all kinds- but by far my favourite are pickling watermelon rinds! They’re like cucumbers, but sweeter making it the perfect snack or side dish.
How to Make Pickled Watermelon Rinds
The Ingredients (+ substitutions)
- Watermelon Rinds
- Salt: you need about 2% of salt of the total weight of watermelon rinds
- Rice Vinegar
- Maple Syrup: or with sugar
- Japanese mustard powder: or mustard of choice
- Sesame oil
Variations
Here are some additional ingredients and seasonings you can add!
- Soy sauce
- Kombu Mentsuyu
- Garlic cloves
- Hawk claw pepper: for an
- Black pepper: for slightly spicier version
- Olive oil: instead of sesame oil, swap for olive oil for a different aroma
The Directions
- Wash the outside of the watermelon well. Slice the green parts off and then slice into equal sized pieces of your choice. Place in a reusable bag or large ziplock bag and add 2% of salt of the total weight of the watermelon (in this case, 18g). Rub the salt in and shake the bag. Place in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, remove 90% of the water in the bag. Add the rice vinegar, maple syrup, mustard powder and sesame oil. Let it sit in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
More pickles to try:
SAVE IT FOR LATER! ↓
If you recreate this Japanese Style Pickled Watermelon Rinds recipe let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment and rating below or by tagging me on Instagram @Okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!
Hungry for more? Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest for more deliciousness!
Pickled Watermelon Rinds
Description
Looking for a way to use up watermelon rinds? Here’s a delicious way to make Japanese-style pickled watermelon rinds!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs of watermelon rind (907g)
- 18g (2% of watermelon rind weight) salt
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 – 2 1/2 tbsp maple syrup (depending on how sweet you like it)
- 2 tsp Japanese mustard power
- 1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil (or olive oil)
Optional add-ins:
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp kombu mentsuyu
- 1 crushed garlic clove
- 1 hawk claw pepper (Takanotsume chili pepper)
- dijon / regular mustard instead of Japanese mustard
- black pepper
Instructions
- Wash the outside of the watermelon well. Slice the green parts off and then slice into equal sized pieces of your choice. Place in a reusable bag or large ziplock bag and add 2% of salt of the total weight of the watermelon (in this case, 18g). Rub the salt in and shake the bag. Place in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, remove 90% of the water in the bag. Add the rice vinegar, maple syrup, mustard powder and sesame oil. Let it sit in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Helpful Equipment: pickling jars, reusable bags
- Nutritional Information Disclaimer: Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated on an online tool (Cronometer).
Okonomi Kitchen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you purchase something through my amazon affiliate links, I earn a small commission that helps me produce consistent content at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting my plant based kitchen!
So easy, refreshing, and tasty! They make a great snack. I used 1/4 of a watermelon and weighed it to find the right amount of salt. I used dijon mustard instead of mustard powder and eyed it & the other ingredients since it wasn’t a whole watermelon. I never thought to use watermelon rind before. I’ll definitely do it again 🙂
So refreshing and addictive! I love trying to minimize my waste in the kitchen so utilizing the rind in this recipe had me so excited. I was out of ground mustard but wanted a kick so I added a bit of pepper flake. Can’t wait to try this again with the mustard addition!
Uma delícia e super prático de fazer 🤤 🤤 amei
Super easy and quick to make! When I told my mom about this recipe she was skeptical, although she does love pickled foods. Therefore she was willing to give it a try. It was really quick to make. I put only a drizzle of maple syrup and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard in the bag of watermelon rinds. It’s so delicious with rice!
Super easy and delicious! When I told my mom about this recipe she was skeptical, although she does love pickled foods. Therefore she was willing to give it a try. It was really quick to make. I put only a drizzle of maple syrup and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard in the bag of watermelon rinds. It’s so delicious with rice!
This was so easy and delicious, and it seems like I’m eating 90% of the watermelon now that I honestly feel like I’m pulling off some great food heist. I omitted mustard because I didn’t have any, and it still tastes delicious. I also tested out some leaving some pink watermelon on and some that were just rind and both taste equally yummy. Tangy, sweet, crunchy, refreshing. It’s similar in flavor to liang ban cucumber salad my mom makes for us at home, but a bit sweeter.
I always love a good food waste reduction tip! I may have salted it a bit too heavily but it was still very very tasty. It goes perfectly with the watermelon katsu and also by it’s own as a snack! 🙂
This is my new favorite way to eat watermelon period! I don’t even care about the middle part of the fruit anymore 😂. Love this recipe so much–so refreshing and addictive.
So, I got a watermelon yesterday that was £1 per 1kg…got it weighed at the checkout and it cost £10.87!! So I’m very pleased to have this recipe available to get as much value out of the watermelon as possible! Ha. I made it in a mason jar as my zip lock bags weren’t big enough and used the same weight as the recipe (so did bin a lot of rind, but I got tired of chopping!lol) I didn’t add any mustard as I’m not a huge fan and I saw on your Instagram that mustard is a recent addition to the recipe. Had some with dinner tonight and it was really tasty and refreshing. I really enjoyed it and it was worth the effort. I wanted to make the other watermelon dish, but I think the texture of this one wouldn’t have cooked well. So I’ve blended some for juice, got some in the fridge to snack on and froze a bunch too. So if you have any recipes on frozen watermelon, I’m always happy to try more of your recipes! 🙂 x
Very refreshing!!! Thank you Lisa for expanding my food range through such fun and tasty (and easy to make!!!) recipes 🙂