Watermelon Granita

By Mark Bittman

Updated Sept. 10, 2025

Watermelon Granita
Sam Kaplan for The New York Times. Food stylist: Suzanne Lenzer. Prop stylist: Randi Brookman Harris
Total Time
2 hours 30 minutes
Rating
5(435)
Comments
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A few lazy stirs as this granita sets up in the freezer is really the only tricky thing about this easy and refreshing dessert. It’s also a perfect midafternoon cooler for a vacation house full of children.

Featured in: Watermelon All Day Long

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings
  • 1pound watermelon
  • 2tablespoons sugar
  • 2tablespoons lemon juice
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

30 calories; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 0 grams protein; 1 milligram sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Cut about 1 pound watermelon into small chunks (discarding the rind), and freeze them. When they’re frozen, put them in a blender with 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and blend until the mixture liquefies. Pour the mixture into a shallow glass or ceramic pan, and freeze for about 2 hours, breaking up the ice crystals with a fork every 30 minutes or so. It should be slushy and crunchy.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
435 user ratings
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Comments

Linda

I often make a smoothy like this with lime instead of lemon. Lime is perfect with watermelon!

Patrick

We did not add the sugar, and it still tasted great.

Rebecca

Made a cubed watermelon salad with lime and mint and olive oil and pepper flakes and way overestimated how much my gang would eat. So I tossed the leftovers in the freezer and then pulled them out a week later to make this granita. I feel like a leftovers genius! The mint was a nice addition to the granita and the olive oil and pepper flakes were unnoticeable. So from here on out, I'll double the watermelon salad and know that I've got a future dessert in the bag. Yay!

Becca

This turned out ok, but one of those recipes where I truly question whether was tested well or not. Because, as others have pointed out, if you freeze the melon as written…blending does not yield a liquid. Like ever. I blended for a 10 minutes and it was still a slush texture. So then given that, the “scraping” step just doesn’t play out at all. In the end it DID result in a tasty frozen treat…but it was not granita texture, and the texture straight from the blender was superior to anything else. If I bother again, I’ll try with unfrozen or semi-frozen melon. But I probably won’t bother.

Iron queen

Truly I did not like the original recipe. However- we made it with LIME instead of lemon, no extra sugar, and we added frozen peaches. It was a unique combination. We served it virgin and with cane rum for the adults.

Joan M

Would this work with mushy melons? I have enjoyed 1 out of 3 melons this year. A huge chuck gets tossed.

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