How to Seed a Pomegranate
Ignore the rest of any advice you’ve been given; this is by far the best information on How to Seed a Pomegranate that I’ve ever used. Use nature’s guidelines and it’s all fruit; no mess!
Every year I show friends How to Seed a Pomegranate and not make a huge mess and they say, ‘you should do a post about that’ but it always escapes me and has never happened. This week I made one of my favorite holiday appetizers, Crostini with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate (also has a list of recipes where I’ve used pomegranate), and I remembered to take a few photos so I could share…you’re welcome! 🙂
I recall when my daughter Lauren was younger and in high school, she helped a woman she babysat for get ready for a holiday party by cleaning a bunch of pomegranates. She came home afterwards with purple hands and a complaint about how much she hated doing it. If only I knew then what I know now!
I know there are myriad methods I’ve seen online including spanking the poor fruit with a big wooden spoon or drowning it in water, but I was lucky enough to meet someone visiting Colorado years ago who had pomegranates growing in their yard and their method has turned out to be the most natural one and for me the best too. There is almost no mess at all!
The truth is that the mess is the juice we all crave and that juice happens whenever the arils inside are punctured with a knife. So it behooves us to puncture as few as possible. And the trick to that is to follow nature’s path and not make our own.
First, cut off the top of the pomegranate where the fruit has fallen off the tree, it should have a sort of crown on the top side. Once you cut off a minimal amount, you will see the separations in the fruit made by membrane.
Cut the peel at each separation where the white membrane meets the outside peel, about a half inch. Grab the top of each section and pull it down to separate it from the others
These are the only cuts you’ll make. To work with the rest of the fruit, simply use your hands to continue to pull it apart at the ‘seams’ where the membrane is and gently rub the fruit, being careful not to break the arils, and separate it from both the membrane and outer shell.
This is easy and because you are not cutting through a bunch of the pomegranate arils, there is not the huge, red mess from juice that Lauren dealt with.
That’s pretty much it; just a couple of minutes and no big mess and more perfectly formed seeds that haven’t been sliced to pieces. I use them in cocktails, salads, as an ice cream topping and sometimes I just eat them with a spoon.
They are quite simply the ruby jewels of the fruit world and so much easier to deal with then you might have ever imagined. Try my method for How to Seed a Pomegranate and I’m betting you never go back!
PIN IT! ‘How to Seed a Pomegranate’
How to Seed a Pomegranate
Ingredients
- 1 Pomegranate fresh
Instructions
- Cut off the top of the pomegranate where it was attached to the tree; just enough to see the inside structure.
- Using a sharp knife and the fruit as a guide, cut about 1/2" of the outer peel where each section of membrane separates the fruit.
- Pull each section down, separating all of them from each other. You might have to cut the first section a bit more until it's easy to pull apart from the larger piece of fruit.
- Use your fingers to gently rub the seeds off of the fruit; removing pieces of the white membrane as necessary to expose more seeds.
- No fuss and no mess!
We use a stick to remove pomogranates from peels.
too much advertising
You are very welcome to ignore the posts and the time I invest in shopping, cooking, photographing and writing these articles which provide content for you at no charge. I take it you work for free?
I have used the underwater method of Chris from the cafe and I’ve whacked them with a spoon and put pomegranate juice all over the kitchen like Nigella but this method works best for me. I haven’t cut them as nicely as you have but I will from now on.
Merry Christmas!
You’ll love it…except for a couple of drops, no juice all over and no danger of whacking your fingers either…which I’ve done! Merry Christmas to you too!