How to Grill Watermelon

By Kay MacInnis

If you weren’t at Providence Cooks! Tuesday night, we missed you! We had a great class built around the theme, Farm to Table. I will try to share the recipes we enjoyed over the next week or two.

The dessert was super simple and good — my favorite kind of recipe. This is a nice way to include the local and seasonal produce that is beginning to come in. The more of the local and seasonal foods we can include in our eating habits, the healthier we tend to be. Eating more produce, especially the fresh or frozen options, decreases our risk for developing a host of diseases.

Grilled fruit? It may not sound like the “normal” choice for the grill, but it’s a tasty one. The heat from the grill caramelizes the natural sugars in the fruit and enhances the sweet taste. You can grill any fruit, and it is really a wonderful way to end the meal.

As an option, try grilling it with balsamic vinegar. It is sweet and tart and a nice complement to the caramelized sugars in the fruit. Try grilled peaches, balsamic vinegar and freshly ground pepper. It is a nice accompaniment to a meal!

Ingredients:

• Watermelon (two inch-wide circular cross-sections)
• Pineapple (one whole, fresh pineapple, sliced for the grill, should do)
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries (all the berries together should amount to about 4 cups)
• 8 tbsp. currant jelly
• 1 cup water
• 4 tsp. agave nectar

Preparation:

• Preheat or prepare the grill for medium-high heat.
• Clean the grill. Lightly coat the grill rack with cooking spray.
• Prepare the watermelon for grilling by slicing about 1″ thick slices crosswise. Then cut each crosswise slice in half, and then in half again, to make four wedges per initial slice. (Since watermelon is made up of mostly water, you do not need to add any coating to the watermelon wedges.) Leave the rind intact, which will make handling the watermelon easier. (It also looks nice on the plate.)
• Grill wedges for 1-2 minutes on medium-high heat, or until grill marks appear, and then turn slices over, and grill for another 1 or 2 minutes. You will notice the sweet smell of the grilled fruit.
• Remove wedges from heat.
• Follow the same procedure for the pineapple. The pineapple may need to stay on the grill a little longer, maybe 3-5 minutes.
• Plate the grilled watermelon and pineapple.
• Top with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, or your favorite choice of berries.
• Put currant jelly, water and agave nectar in saucepan. Warm over medium heat, stirring constantly until a glaze forms.
• Pour glaze over fruit and serve.

Yield: 8 servings.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 70 Calories, 0 fat, 0 protein, 5 mg sodium, 16 grams carbohydrate.

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This is another in a weekly series of healthy recipes from Kay MacInnis, registered dietitian at Providence Hospitals in Columbia.

Kay works in Health and Wellness at Providence, helping cardiac and diabetes patients eat their way to healthier lives. She’s not a chef herself, but in consultation with the actual chefs at Providence, she’s learned a lot over the years as she has worked to help patients help themselves after they leave the hospital.

She also conducts a number of health and wellness events for the public, including the monthly Providence Cooks! classes. There will be no class in July; the program returns in August.