Make your watermelon a ‘dinner’ melon

“Chicken Wings With Watermelon Chipotle Glaze.” (Depositphotos.com)

Watermelons are a delicious, fresh ingredient that shouldn’t be restricted to fruit platters and buffet tables. Its versatility is astounding. Botanically, a watermelon is a fruit — a ripened ovary of a seed plant and its contents — much like the pepper, pumpkin or tomato.

However, as a member of the cucurbitaceous plant family of gourds, watermelon also is related to cucumber and squash — planted from seeds or seedlings, harvested and then cleared from the field like a vegetable. For this reason, it’s also classified as a vegetable or, as its sometimes called, a “fregetable.”

Fruit or vegetable, watermelons are a sweet delicacy with numerous health benefits. Watermelon is a good source of vitamin C, thiamin and vitamin B-6. It’s also