Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's melon recipes.

No need to laugh … Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's melon recipes | Life and style | The Guardian
Melon, cucumber and courgette salad with olives and red onion
Here, I've partnered melons with their cucurbit relatives, cucumbers and courgettes. All that delicate, juicy flesh is pointed up beautifully by the assertive flavours of olives and onion. Serves four as a side dish.

½ large cucumber (about 200g)
1 medium courgette (about 200g)
¼ small charentais or galia melon (about 200g)
50g pitted black olives, such as kalamata
½ medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
Juice of ½ small lemon
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Quarter the cucumber lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and slice into thin quarter-moons about 2mm thick. Put the slices in a large bowl. Top and tail the courgette, quarter it lengthways and cut into pieces the same thickness as the cucumber. Add to the bowl.

Scoop the seeds out of the melon. Carefully slice the melon off its skin, then cut it first lengthways into two to three slender wedges, then crosswise, as with the cucumber and courgette, and add to the bowl.

Roughly chop the olives and add to the salad with the onion. Squeeze over the lemon juice, trickle over the oil, give it a good seasoning and stir together gently. Taste, add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if needed, and serve straight away.

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Melon smoothie with orange, ginger and honey
Puréed ripe melon has a lovely, velvety, almost creamy texture.
This refreshing smoothie tastes best when really cold, so chill the melon first.
If your blender isn't up to processing ice cubes, just drop a couple into each glass before you serve the smoothie.
Serves two.

1 small to medium ripe charentais or galia melon, chilled (about 1kg)
150ml freshly squeezed orange juice
1 thumb-sized chunk ginger, peeled
3-4 ice cubes
1-2 tsp honey

Scoop out the melon seeds, then scoop the flesh off the skin in chunks, dropping them into a blender as you go.
Add the orange juice.

Finely grate the ginger into a sieve over a small bowl.
Press the grated ginger with the back of a spoon, to squeeze out its juice, measure out a teaspoon and add to the blender.
Add the ice and whizz the lot until smooth.
Add a little honey to taste, just to enhance the fruity flavours, and a touch more ginger juice, if you fancy more kick. Drink immediately.