It’s National Watermelon Day. Let’s have some tasty vegan fun!

Melonie Hattingdon. © Vivian Grant Farrell.

It seems we’ve been waiting a long time for this day to roll around.

Today, August 3rd, is National Watermelon Day.

Hattingdon has joined us to show off her watermelon hat. Isn’t that as sweet as a slice of melon?

Speaking of which, you already know how to enjoy watermelon, no recipe required — just slice and serve, right? That’s about all that has ever occurred to me. Until now.

Here are a few very tasty ideas. And yes they are vegan.

Lena from Raw Food Recipes tells us how to make watermelon popsicles over at One Green Planet. She points out watermelon is perfect. Popsicles need water and sweetener to freeze perfectly. Watermelon has natural sugar and plenty of water.

Lena uses sliced kiwis in hers. That’s a picture of them up top in the Featured Image.

Fun and refreshing right?

When my neighbor and I finally wrestled our large watermelon into the house we realized that we had forgotten to get the kiwi.

I still had some very delicious raw cherries at my place. So we removed the stems, pitted them and sliced them up and added them in instead. Oh, my. You have to do this!

Here’s the recipe with kiwis.

Watermelon Popsicles

Ingredients

5 cups watermelon, cubed
2 kiwis, sliced

Preparation

Cut into smaller pieces and place them in a blender, and blend. Fill some popsicle moulds with kiwi slices. Pour watermelon puree into moulds and put them in the freezer. In 15 minutes, insert sticks. Freeze until firm, several hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, run popsicles molds under warm water for a few seconds, then pull each one out.

Another confession. Neither of us could find our popsicle moulds. But we both had silicone baking cups. We filled them up instead and popped them in the freezer and ate this frozen delight with spoons!

But not until the next day and after we made Minimalist Baker’s Coconut Whipped Cream to put on top. Absolutely scrumptious. Mark this page or her page because you will want this come Thanksgiving time. Oh yeah!

---

How about a sorbet? Don’t run away. It’s not all frosty fare. Right after this is a wonderful salad recipe.

Easy Watermelon Sorbet (ice cream maker not needed)
From Girl Makes Food

Ingredients

½ Watermelon (cut into small chunks and frozen)
½ cup Water

Instructions

Add the frozen watermelon chunks to the food processor or blender. Mix until smooth and sorbet texture (you might need to stop it and scrape it down a few times). Scoop and enjoy!

Girl Makes Food also has a terrific, super easy recipe called Watermelon Mint Mojito Smoothie that is divine.

---

Okay, we have arrived. How about that salad? It’s from Monique at Ambitious Kitchen. Look.

Avocado, Watermelon and Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

2 avocados, pitted and sliced or cubed
1 seedless watermelon, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cucumbers, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup freshly chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large bowl add avocado and drizzle with lime juice and olive oil and gently stir to coat. In a separate large bowl, toss watermelon and cucumber together. Add the avocado mixture on top of the watermelon and cucumbers. Sprinkle with cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.

---

More National Days to Come

Here are some other festive days for the month of August, some food — some not. I can’t promise we will get to all of these but we will try.

August is National Peach Month.

August 04 — National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
You must go here »
August 06 — National Root Beer Float Day
August 15 — National Lemon Meringue Pie Day
August 24 — National Waffle Day
August 25 — National Banana Split Day

The week of August 8 is National Smile Week

August 09 — National Book Lovers Day
August 26 — National Dog Day

If you are looking at the ones calling for ice cream and think we are stuck, ha ha, no we aren’t. You’ll see.

In the meantime, look what Ben & Jerry’s have done.