It must be cantaloupe season because at the start of this weekend I had four almost overly ripe cantaloupes sitting in our fruit bowl from our CSA box. I try to come up with creative ways to use up our CSA ingredients (in the fall we receive a ton of root veggies from the local farmers, in the winter a crazy amount of delicious greens…) and when I started to think up cantaloupe uses I fell short at fruit salad. Two cantaloupes of fruit salad later and it was time to try something new.
A while back Kevin and I were trying out a new restaurant when the chef offered a cantaloupe and basil ‘palette cleanser’ between two courses. It was delicious. There’s something about the balance of sweet, juicy cantaloupe and tart (almost bitter) leafy basil that tastes so fresh and yummy.
And so the cantaloupe + basil summer blend was born.
One whole sweet cantaloupe serves as the base…
And a scoop of applesauce plus juice helps to balance out the bitterness of the basil.
One cantaloupe will make 4-5 blenders worth of juice.
You don’t have to use applesauce, any sweeter fruit would be delicious (peaches, apples, kiwi) and to add a little sparkly kick to the blend since I was bringing this to a baby shower rather than making for Liv at home, I used an Italian Blood Orange Soda from Trader Joes that we had on hand instead of regular juice. You could make it an alcoholic cocktail as well – yum.
To keep the leafy basil from being too chunky, I poured out the majority of the cantaloupe juice mixture until I had about a cup, and then I blended this smaller portion with a handful of leaves.
I stirred that into the cantaloupe juice for the final sweet summer blend!
The blender – and I’m not talking the traditional smoothie here – is a great solution to any excess melon (or fruit) this summer. Yum.
PS More good eats recipes found right here.
I am a sucker for smoothies and my kids love it at breakfast. This recipe sounds yummy….can’t wait to try it out. Thanks for sharing!
Yum, you should try cantaloupe and summer squash soup; it is delish!
That sounds amazing!!
Mmmm…I love a good cantaloupe. This reminds me of the a cantaloupe soup I had years ago. It was so delicious and perfect for hot summer days!
That sounds delicious!
Yumm- that sounds delicious. I have peaches that I froze for smoothies, and I’m thinking this would be a nice addition.
That sounds sooooo delicious! One of my co-workers has a CSA box and she always has the most delicious fruits and veggies at lunch. I’ve been thinking doing a bi-weekly one but I don’t know if I would be able to not let stuff go to waste. I would especially hate to waste food. What CSA group are you apart of? Does yours deliver or do you pick up? Thanks in advance, Morgan!
Right now we use Be Wise Ranch, they deliver to a neighborhood drop spot (usually someone’s house) and we have a window of time to pick it up. We get a biweekly box as well and even that makes it TOUGH to not waste any fruits or veggies. Luckily we can feed anything that is close to the edge to the chickens. We love our CSA box!