Frozen Watermelon Slush

Frozen watermelon cubes do almost all the work in this drink: blended straight from the freezer, they turn into a thick, icy slush in under a minute, with no ice added at all. Lime juice cuts through the watermelon's natural sweetness with a bright acidity that keeps the drink from tasting flat, while a ripe banana — added unfrozen — softens the icy texture and adds body without diluting the watermelon's pink colour or dulling its flavour. The result sits somewhere between a juice and a proper slush: thick enough to eat with a spoon if left to sit for a minute, cold enough to matter on a hot afternoon, and bright enough in colour to look as refreshing as it actually is. The whole preparation takes only as long as it takes to load up a blender, with the only real prep step being keeping a bag of watermelon cubes ready in the freezer. It's a good recipe to make as a jug and share between several glasses for an afternoon snack with friends, or to scale down for a quick single serving. Unlike a syrup-based slush, no added sugar is doing any of the work here — all the sweetness comes from the fruit.

Ingredients

• 300 g frozen watermelon, cut into cubes
• juice of ½ lime
• 1 ripe banana, peeled (not frozen)

Method

1. Put the frozen watermelon, lime juice and banana in a blender.
2. Blend until smooth and icy, then serve immediately.

Tip

Freeze the watermelon in a single layer on a tray before transferring it to a bag, so the cubes stay separate instead of fusing into a solid block that's hard to portion. Serve the slush as soon as it's blended, as it turns into a thin juice within minutes at room temperature. A little coconut water blended in with the other ingredients can loosen the texture if your blender struggles with the frozen cubes.

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