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Transform a disappointing melon

Recipe: Roast a not-ripe cantaloupe to sweetness

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JUN 29, 2025

Roasted cantaloupe spiced with nutmeg becomes a delicious topping for pancakes. Kathy Morrison

Melon stem end — This melon was harvested too early.

The cantaloupe was, to put it plainly, a disappointment. I grow muskmelons, so I know how wonderfully fragrant they are when ripe.

But this melon, which appeared in my farm box, was neither ripe nor fragrant. Clue to it being picked too early: It still had a bit of cut stem where it should have had a "belly button" indentation. Cantaloupe conveniently harvests itself when ripe, with the stem disconnecting easily. This one also was somewhat green under the webbing on the skin, not creamy colored.

Yet I didn't want to waste the melon. There had to be something I could do with it.

The answer I hit on was roasting it. Just add heat and a bit of sugar. It went from bland and crunchy to sweetly edible, the cubes cooking down to nearly sauce. With a little stirring and some (optional) nutmeg, it was sauce, great for ice cream or pancakes. It also could be served alongside grilled chicken or pork, with maybe cumin or paprika instead of nutmeg.

Roasted cantaloupe

Makes about 2 cups, depending on melon's size

Ingredients:

1 large under-ripe cantaloupe

2 tablespoons sugar or vanilla sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Instructions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the melon, cut it in half and remove the seeds. Cut the halves into wedges, and cut off the skin. Cut the wedges into 1-inch chunks (approximately).

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Scatter the melon cubes over the pan. Toss the cubes with the sugar.

Cooked melon chunks on pan — Melon chunks cooked and cooling before being
smooshed into sauce.

Roast the melon for 20-25 minutes until the cubes are soft, turning the cubes after about 12 minutes. The cubes may be starting to brown, but mine did not brown because the melon released so much liquid. Either way, remove from the oven before the cubes collapse completely.

Allow the melon to cool. Scrape the melon and all the liquid into a bowl. Taste, and stir in nutmeg or cinnamon if desired. Use sauce over pancakes, ice cream, pound cake, or whatever you like. Sauce will keep covered in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

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recipe recipes melon cantaloupe fruit cooking dessert breakfast summer June Sacramento gardening

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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