How to Eat Horned Melons

You might have noticed the strange orange colored fruit with horn like spines in some super markets. It is nothing other than horned melon or kiwano, which is native to the African deserts. These fruits belong to the family of cucumbers and melons - Cucurbitaceae. This fruit is known in various other names like the African horned cucumber or melon, jelly melon, hedged gourd, English tomato and melano. In some parts of the United States, this fruit is called 'blowfish fruit'. In some regions, this fruit is used for decorative purposes, but, it is edible too. As this fruit is a relatively new entrant in most of the western countries, people are not familiar with it.

What is a Horned Melon

This fruit is now commercially grown in New Zealand, Australia and some parts of the United States. It is one of the strange and distinct looking fruit with spiny protrusions. They are usually oval in shape, with the size of medium papaya. When harvested, this fruit is green, which turns to orange, when ripe. Unlike the flashy orange outer skin, the jelly like inner flesh is lime green in color and is interspersed with horned melon seeds. The seeds are covered with gelatin like substance. The inner flesh is used for preparing salads or as fruit snacks or can be used after sweetening its puree. It is said that it tastes like a combination of cucumber or zucchini or a mix of lime, banana and cucumber.

These fruits are low in calories, high in dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. This fruit can be stored in room temperature for at least two months. This can be one of the reasons for using these strange looking fruits for decorative purposes. However, this fruit is a relatively new entrant to most parts of the world. Even though, people buy this fruit, they are not sure about how to eat it.

How to Eat a Horned Melon

There are many people out there, who buy this fruit for its unique looks, but, get confused, when it comes to eating this fruit. There is no special method of eating it. The edible part is the inner gelatinous part. All you have to do is to cut the fruit either vertically or horizontally and scoop out the inner flesh, which can be eaten. You may add a little bit of salt or sugar to enhance the taste. Another method to eat a kiwano horned melon is to cut the fruit into half (vertically) and cut it further to form long strips. These strips can be eaten, as you eat cantaloupes or watermelon strips. You can eat the scooped out jelly of this fruit along with vanilla ice cream or yogurt. The seeds are also edible and are like cucumber seeds only. You may also discard it. However, it will be difficult to remove the seeds from the jelly and you can spit out the seeds, while eating. If you are interested in finding more ways to eat a horned melon, search for some recipes with this fruit. If you want to purchase this fruit, go for those with orange colored rinds, which are firm.