How To Hollow Out Your Watermelon For A Festive Punch Bowl

Why use a boring plastic or glass bowl for your fave summer punch, when you can use a watermelon? These oval fruits offer not only the juicy, sweet flesh inside, but hollowed out, can become a unique, eco-friendly, and eye-catching beverage bowl to add a fun and functional centerpiece to your table.

Start by cutting a ¼ or ½ inch slice off the stem side so your melon sits flush on a saucer on the table. Make sure you only cut into the rind and don't reach the fleshy part. Next you'll need to cut a hole into the top of the melon to be able to scoop the flesh out — this can serve as a lid for your punch bowl to keep dust and insects out. A quarter of the way down should do the trick, but go as high or low as you'd like your bowl to be so you can get your serving ladle in and out with ease.

Grab a large serving spoon, ice cream scoop, cookie scoop, or melon baller and scoop out the flesh. Don't discard the flesh though — use it to make a fresh watermelon punch, or a more sassy Korean version. If you're using a melon baller, the little watermelon balls can serve as a snack or a sweet addition in your glasses. Make sure all the flesh and seeds are removed, then decant your punch into your watermelon bowl. Refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight if you have the time, before serving.

Add extra pizzazz to your watermelon punch bowl by turning the outside into a canvas, then get creative with some carved artwork. Simply draw or print a template on paper, then use a food-safe marker to trace the design onto the watermelon's outer rind. Grab your sharp paring knife and follow the lines to carve out your design. Get right into theme with designs for occasions such as Halloween, Easter, or Thanksgiving.

The top of your punch bowl can also be used to get creative. Cut zig zags around the mouth of your watermelon to give the edge an "edge". You can also use different cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the top layer of the rind all around your bowl, as well as out of the flesh, creating surface artwork, then use the shapes you cut out to decorate the rim. Pinning the shapes on toothpicks and lodging them in the rim will keep them there. You can also use longer skewers and mix watermelon balls with other fruits that guests can take with their glass of punch as a complementary snack.

Then, of course, you don't have to have a traditional bowl shape. You can cut your punch bowl into any kind of shape, as long as it has enough depth to hold your punch. From a watermelon shark with teeth carved from the rind, to a frog with an open mouth to scoop your punch out of, your imagination is the limit to what you can create.