Cucumber-Melon Paletas

Last year, right around this time, a friend of mine came to me asking for help with a business idea . She wanted to get a food truck and drive around selling nothing but homemade “paletas” (Spanish for ice pops) and gourmet coffee. Problem was, she knew a whole lot about coffee, but absolutely nothing about how to make ice pops. She had the concept, but the flavor combinations she had in mind were, well, not “ideal”, if you know what I mean.

So of course, I agreed to help. We spent a good amount of time coming up with flavors, shopping for ingredients and even coming up with some kind of a business plan. We tested them, some were great, some not so much, and then… Then that was it. I’m not sure what happened, but the whole project just disappeared. Gone. We never spoke about it again, we never brought it up. Almost as if it never happened. Weird.

Now fast forward one year, and what do you know: paletas are everywhere. Everyone is making them, posting recipes, and selling them.

Oh well. Maybe we missed a great business opportunity, who knows. But really, who cares? We can still have fun creating new cool flavors and sharing them with you. Like this one.

To be quite honest with you, this recipe originally started as a cucumber melon “lemonade”. It didn’t takes us long to realized thought that, that idea, wasn’t really gonna work. The texture was way too thick and “pulpy”. A little off putting to tell you the truth! So, if when life gives you lemons you try to make lemonade and that doesn’t work, well, figure out something else! Worked for us in this case! Refreshing and definitely, definitely yummy. Oh, and pretty

Cucumber-Melon Paletas Recipe

Prep time: 10 mins  | Cook time:0 | Total time: 10 mins

Ingredients: 

• 1 small cantaloupe, cut into large chucks
• 5-6 small Persian cucumbers (or 1 large seedless cucumber), peeled and diced
• ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 6 large mint leaves
• 2 tbsp agave (or to taste)
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 bag frozen raspberries (you will use 4-5 berries per pop)

Instructions:

1. Blend all the ingredients on a blender at high speed, until smooth
2. Fill the paletas or ice pop mold ¾ of the way. Insert 4-5 raspberries on each mold
3. Freeze for 3-4 hours or until frozen.

Enjoy your meal!