Honeydew melon

I recently posted a recipe for a Blueberry-Honeydew Smoothie and I also came across some info about why honeydew melon is good for you–so I thought it would be a great time to share this! According to Healthy Eating, one cup of cubed honeydew contains these vitamins and essential nutrients:

34% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C (an antioxidant that helps neutralize free radicals, helping you fight off illness and disease)
8% of the recommended daily intake of Potassium (getting the daily recommended amount of potassium helps you maintain a normal blood pressure)
12% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin B-6 (helps regulate mood and sleep)
6% of the recommended daily intake of Fiber for women, and 4% for men (fiber helps lower cholesterol and keeps food moving through the digestive tract)

Basically, honeydew melons are an excellent source of Vitamin C and a good source of potassium and Vitamin B-6.

When purchasing honeydew melon, look for one with a creamy white or pale cream rind. If it has some brown freckling, it just means that’s an area where it’s a little higher in sugar (a little more sweeter). If it’s fully ripe, you should be able to smell the melon’s sweet aroma. A good melon should be firm but not hard and shouldn’t have any soft spots on it (if the melon feels “spongy” when pressed, it’s too ripe). If melon is not fully ripe, let it set at room temperature for a few days.

It’s really been warm lately, so I’ve been making lots of smoothies–they just taste so good on a hot day! One fruit that I really love but haven’t used that much in smoothies is honeydew melon. They’ve always been a little challenging for me to cut because I don’t have the greatest cutlery (watermelon is the same problem, but I usually don’t buy a whole watermelon; I buy the ones that are already cut). But my melon-cutting problems were over when I received two samples from the Gunter Wilhelm™ Executive Chef™ Cutlery Collection. I received an 8″ Chef Knife and a 3.5″ Paring Knife to try out, and I decided to put them to the melon test!

I bought quite a large honeydew melon, which would have been really hard to cut with my old knives. I used the 8″ Chef Knife to cut the melon in half and it worked like a dream! It cut so smoothly and was really easy to handle. The Paring Knife worked great for cutting the melon into smaller chunks. I read that these knives have an ergonomic handle which is especially nice when you have recipes that require a lot of chopping. And this cutlery is made with high-carbon stainless steel that won’t wear out–in fact, it has a lifetime warranty.

So I decided to use my chunks of honeydew melon in a smoothie with some frozen blueberries, and it tasted great! The frozen blueberries make the smoothie nice and cool, and there’s some banana and yogurt in this that make it creamy. Here’s the recipe…

BLUEBERRY-HONEYDEW SMOOTHIE by NancyCreative

Makes 2 (8-ounce) servings

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup honeydew melon (cut melon into small chunks–you can substitute cantaloupe if you want)

1/2 medium or large size banana, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

1/2 to 1 Tablespoon honey

Optional: 1/2 Tablespoon ground flaxseed

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth (if you want extra fiber, add the ground flaxseed into the blender, too). Pour into two glasses and serve immediately. Makes 2 (8-ounce) servings.

Cutting and chopping fruits and veggies is so much easier with this cutlery. Do you have a favorite set of knives you like to use, or have you ever tried the Gunter Wilhelm™ brand?

Linked to Full Plate Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things.