Watermelon seed
Citrullus lanatus · Seed
Top 10 pairings
Watermelon seeds are the flat, teardrop-shaped seeds of the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) — usually the glossy black or brown whole seeds spat out of the fruit, but increasingly eaten in their own right: dried and roasted as a salty snack, shelled into pale kernels, or ground into the rich, oily seed sauces and "egusi-like" stews of West and North Africa. Nutty, oily and protein-rich, they are a frugal food won from what is usually discarded.
Picking a good onedrag
Cream, snapping crisp, sweetly nuttyYellowed, leathery, smells of crayon
Sound, some months inEverydayToast a shade harder to wake the nuttiness, then scatter over salads and grain bowls, or grind the kernels to a nutty paste for a stew.
Get your nose right into the seedsMild and oily, the nuttiness gone quiet
Look at the kernels in the lightCream with a few darker or split kernels
Snap one, then check the corners of the bagCrisp, with a little seed dust settled below
In the hull over shelled, shelled over groundShelled cream kernels, sealed, fast-moving stock