Everything is Possible with Cantaloupe!

Yaaaayyyy!!!!!  Summer cantaloupe harvest has begun in the southernmost regions of California!!!  Over the long off-season, California Cantaloupes has been cooking up a few new things we can’t wait to share with our followers. One of the most exciting is an interesting new concept that utilizes our favorite fruit to make a meatless burger.

Yes, you read that right.

In late April, California Cantaloupes participated in an event for a group of produce industry marketing professionals whose sole focus is working to increase consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables. We chose this venue to taste test what we’re calling the Possible Burger.

Click here to watch a reel that showcases the taste testing that went on at the event.

What better place to roll this unique vegan burger made from fresh cantaloupe? As part of this conference, a presentation about Gen Z consumers stressed they are more health-focused than other generations, citing this group’s under utilization of alcohol and over indexing in meat alternatives.

This is exactly why we turned to New York-based Chef Will Horowitz who, in addition to the cantaloupe burger, has developed a series of interesting meatless items using fresh produce with everything from prosciutto made from radishes to hot dogs made from carrots. He even created a giant watermelon ham!

Horowitz is an acclaimed New York based chef, food writer and culinary consultant. Hailed by the NY Times in a 2016 front-cover exposé as a “fearless explorer of all things culinary.” He is most known as the former owner of well-awarded New York City restaurants Ducks Eatery and Harry & Ida’s Meat and Supply Co. And he is the inventor of multiple international food products and viral social media sensations. He specializes in integrating heritage food techniques and ingredients into modern renewable practices.

“For me as a chef, we want consumers to have all the options they are looking for.  With the rise of vegan and plant-based diets, restaurants really don’t have a lot of options,” explains Horowitz. “With items like the cantaloupe burger, we can take whole vegetables and whole fruits and prepare them using old processes like smoking, barbecuing and grilling. For us that’s much more of a natural route than taking something that is over-processed or created in some sort of laboratory and really isn’t in the same ethos as a farm-to-table restaurant.” 

We knew right away that Horowitz would be a great fit with cantaloupe farmers and we were intrigued, to say the least, about what this cantaloupe burger tastes like. 

“The cantaloupe burger came about simply because of how much moisture is in a melon and how delicious they are from the start,”  Horowitz continues. “We started by taking slightly under ripe cantaloupe, curing it and smoking it, so that when you bit into it, it wasn’t too sweet. I wouldn’t say it’s a replica of a burger. It’s really its own beautiful thing.”

We asked Horowitz to create a version of his restaurant’s recipe for people to make at home. The recipe is actually quite simple. It uses nothing but cantaloupe and a marinade made from a few ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. The cantaloupe is then smoked, roasted and placed in a bun along with lettuce, onions, pickles and your favorite burger sauce.

We were able to taste the burger along with attendees at the above-mentioned conference and we can tell you it is delicious!!!  We hope you’ll give it a try. You can checkout the recipe here.

And please stay tuned for even more excitement this summer including some great new consumer giveaways, other cantaloupe-focused recipes and more info about the cantaloupe burger!