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One of the fruit stars of the winter season is the pomegranate, which yields dozens of jewel-toned seeds that provide a delicious and healthy burst of flavor to a wide range of dishes. It’s the perfect, healthy antidote to the cold days of winter. But pomegranates can be a bit tricky to deal with—their bright red juice stains what it touches, and they require a bit of care to open them and extract their edible seeds. Here are some tips on how to deal with this seasonal delight—don’t miss them while they’re available!
When buying pomegranates, you want to look for ones that have are fairly deep red. Hold the fruit in your hand—if it feels heavy for its size, it’s a good one to select. If this is your first pomegranate-buying experience, I’d recommend picking up a few for comparison. You’ll definitely notice a difference.
Once you get the pomegranate home, you need to figure out how to get into its shell. Without clear instructions about how to open a pomegranate and extract the pomegranate seeds, this fruit can be intimidating. In fact, Crystal at Little Bit Funky wrote her post on how to conquer pomegranates just because she knows people who are afraid to try to open one.
It's been brought to my attention that I have several friends who avoid pomegranates. Either because they don't know how to even start to eat them...or, well, mostly that.
Why eat pomegranate seeds? Well, they have Vitamin C and K, for starters. Also, they’re low in calories and high in fiber.
Gwen at Simply Healthy Family talks about some of the health benefits of pomegranates in her instructional post:
They are vital to a healthy immune system ridding the body of all sorts of toxins and free radicals. Sounds hokey? Free radicals are attributed to early signs of aging, persistent illnesses, cardiovascular disease and most cancers.
Once you have your seeds in hand, try them in one of the following recipes:
- Pomegranate Mousse Cake from A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis
- Quinoa Salad with Fennel and Pomegranate from The Yellow Table
- Pomegranate Champagne Punch from Shore Society
- Bulgur Salad with Mint and Pomegranates from Lemon Love Notes
- Raw Kale Beet Carrot and Pomegranate Salad from Cubit’s Organic Living
- Roasted Eggplant With Tahini and Pomegranate Party Dip from weirdcombinations
What’s your favorite way to use pomegranate seeds? Share your recipe ideas in the comments below.
Genie blogs about gardening and food at The Inadvertent Gardener, and tells very short tales at 100 Proof Stories. She is also the Food Section Editor for BlogHer.
Image Credit: moarplease on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license.
