These homemade Melona bars are a vegan, gluten-free, and paleo version of the popular Binggrae Melona dessert bars. This healthier version is made with only 4 ingredients and is just as delicious! Ultra-creamy, sweet, and taste like the real deal.
What Are Binggrae Melona Ice Cream Bars?
If you’ve never heard of them before, Melona is a very popular Korean melon ice cream bar. They are light green to replicate the color of honeydew, and the flavor is just unbelievable.
The key feature of these bars is that they are ultra creamy while being sweet. They are just so addicting and wonderful and melt in your mouth – so refreshing on a hot day.
What Makes This Recipe Great
Binggrae Melona ice cream bars were one of my favorite treats growing up. When I was still living in South Korea, my parents or my grandma would give me small change so I could get myself a snack or a dessert at the corner store. I always chose Melona bars!
During the summer, Melona ice cream bars were my top pick, and I preferred them over any kind of chocolate treat. They are perfectly creamy, sweet, and fruity, and so refreshing!
I decided to make my own version, with vegan ingredients and natural sugar to make these dessert bars a bit healthier. Turns out they are just as delicious! Just 4 ingredients and 10 minutes of prep. Your freezer does the rest!
If you love ice cream, try these delicious vegan ice cream recipes: 3-Ingredient Mango Nice Cream, Homemade Salted Caramel Ice Cream, Pistachio, Cherry Garcia Copycat, and/or this 3-Ingredient Matcha Ice Cream.
How to Make Melona Ice Cream Bars
While the original Melona bar ingredients contain artificial flavors and colors, gums, and even corn, I decided to recreate my favorite Korean melon ice cream bar by making a paleo and vegan version with simple and healthy ingredients!
These creamy melona bars only require 4 ingredients, and the result is unbelievable. It really tastes like the real deal!
Ingredients
- Raw Cashews: You will need to soak the cashews for at least three hours. It’s easy to soak them overnight before you plan to make the recipe. Soaking them helps them get extra creamy and smooth in the blender.
- Coconut milk: A can of full-fat coconut milk will work best for that creamy texture
- Honeydew melon: Make sure the melon is ripe. See expert tips below for how to pick the perfect melon.
- Maple syrup: I use this instead of white or brown sugar for an all-natural alternative.
- Optional, Green food coloring: Because of the natural ingredients, these cashew coconut Melona bars will be creamy white in color. If you want it to look more like the real thing, adding a little bit of food coloring will give it that green shade. I used this natural food coloring by mixing blue and yellow together, which resulted in a honeydew-like green tone.
Equipment
- If you want to use a popsicle mold, I have this one and love it! The popsicles pop out really easily and the shape is great too.
- I recommend using a high-powered blender like a Vitamix or something comparable. This way, the ingredients will get extra smooth, the perfect consistency for these dessert bars.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Make sure to soak the cashews in water for at least 3 hours before starting. Drain them and transfer them to a high-powered blender.
- Add coconut milk to the blender, along with honeydew and maple syrup.
- Blend until smooth and creamy. You can then taste to add more maple syrup if needed.
- Optional step: Add green food coloring (or you can mix blue and yellow as I did), starting with 4 drops. Blend and add more until it reaches your desired shade of green.
- Pour the mixture into the popsicle mold.
- Freeze for at least 6 hours. Remove from the mold and enjoy!
Expert Tips
- How to Pick Honeydew: The easiest way to pick out a ripe honeydew is by smelling it. It should have a sweet aroma. You can also tell my pressing into it. It should be firm, but still, give in to pressure when you press on it.
- Using Alternative Melon: You can use a cantaloupe, but it’ll be more orange in color and won’t look like the original Melona bars. However, it’ll still be delicious!
- No Popsicle Mold: Yes, you can! If you don’t have a mold, you can always fill up small paper or plastic cups or ice cube molds with the blended mixture. Stick a popsicle stick in the center, and then remove it once frozen!
Recipe FAQs
These bars are a healthier version of the original, with healthy fats, protein, and less sugar! The calories are coming from good sources, as opposed to highly processed ones. Made with only 4 all-natural, vegan ingredients.
16 grams. This homemade version has only 10 grams of sugar and is all-natural! No high fructose corn syrup here!
I found the ingredients list for the original recipe below. My version is made with just 4 ingredients!
Ingredients: Water, Cream, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Skim Milk Powder, Whey Powder, Artificial Flavor, Melon Syrup, Mono and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Sodium Carboxymethylcellulose, Salt, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Polysorbate 80, Yellow 5 (Tartrazine), Blue 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF).
If you want to try the original and are wondering where to buy Melona dessert bars, they are available for individual sale in many Asian grocery stores in the USA!
Due to their popularity, I’ve heard that they’ve been found at some Costco and Safeway locations and other grocery stores as well. If you buy groceries on InstaCart, I’ve also seen them available for delivery.
More Homemade Asian Sweet Treats…
Traditional Korean Dessert: Sweet Rice Cake (Songpyeon)
If you make this recipe, please leave me a star rating and comment below! I love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Follow me on social media Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for even more delicious recipes!
Homemade Melona Ice Cream Bars
Ingredients
- 1½ cup raw cashews soaked in water for at least 3 hours
- 1/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
- 1½ cups cubed honeydew ripe
- 3 tbsp maple syrup plus more to taste
- Optional: Green food coloring I like this natural brand
Equipment
- Popsicle mold I used this one
Instructions
- Drain the soaked cashews and transfer the cashews to a high-powered blender.
- Add coconut milk, honeydew cubes, and maple syrup.
- Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste to add more maple syrup, if needed.
- Optional: Add green food coloring (or mix blue and yellow together like I did), starting with 4 drops. Blend and add more until it reaches the desired shade.
- Pour into the popsicle mold.
- Freeze for at least 6 hours. Remove from the mold and enjoy!
Notes
Expert Tips
- How to Pick Honeydew: The easiest way to pick out a ripe honeydew is by smelling it. It should have a sweet aroma. You can also tell my pressing into it. It should be firm, but still, give in to pressure when you press on it.
- Using Alternative Melon: You can use a cantaloupe but it’ll be more orange in color and won’t look like the original Melona bars. However, it’ll still be delicious!
- No Popsicle Mold: If you don’t have a mold, you can always fill up small paper or plastic cups or ice cube molds with the blended mixture. Stick a popsicle stick in the center, and then remove it once frozen!
Regarding other affiliate links and affiliate relationships: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Thank you for your support and understanding.
Can you put the mixture in a ice cream maker
yes!
Did you use coconut milk from a can or from a carton in refrigerated section of grocery store ?
The thick kind from the can!
I finally had the opportunity to try your recipe using the canned coconut milk as you stated. I was really looking forward to tasting the Melona recipe bars as I used to eat them on Guam, but needed dairy free. I loved the creaminess, but although my Honeydew melon was ripe and tasted good when I was cutting it up, it didn’t give quite enough flavor to the bars. My recollection of the flavor when eating them on Guam was the flavor was mild but my bars were a little to mild. I felt this was going to be the case when I taste tested the recipe before freezing them, so I almost added more honeydew but I was concerned that it would affect the consistency of the bars. I would be happy to try again with any tips you can suggest.
I am more of an ice cream fan, so I put this in my ice cream maker and it turned out great! The flavor is unique and yummy.