Ok, so maybe we’re a sucker for alliteration, but also, the pomegranate should be pompous. Why? Well, those glittering wee jewels of seeds pack a nutritional punch. Pomegranate has vitamin C for collagen (ahem, only the building block of beauty!) and vitamin K for an even skin tone. It has folate, which helps fight gray hair and encourages cell-turnover, and potassium to guard against dry skin—hello, glowing complexion! It even has fiber to help with detoxing. And it’s bursting with antioxidants. (Take that, free radicals, with your nasty, aging effects!)
Right now, pomegranates are in season, so your supermarket should be well-stocked with this heart-shaped, heart-healthy fruit powerhouse.
Because they’re less common than, you know, apples, you may be apprehensive about buying pomegranates. You may wonder, how do I choose them? How do I cut them? These are great questions, because it can be a tad complicated.
At the market, go for a heavier pomegranate, with a deep red color and a reddish-brown rind (the puckered tip). Stock up now, while they’re fresh, and store them in the fridge for up to four weeks. If you really want to make the most of the season, you can buy in bulk and freeze the seeds up to a year. (But if you don’t freeze them, eat those seeds within a few days of opening the fruit!)
If you’re familiar with pomegranates, you’re also familiar with the “my counter looks like a massacre” phenomena. There’s a clever way to avoid this. De-seed the pomegranate underwater! Slice the fruit open on a cutting board, then submerge the halves in a large bowl of water and work out the seeds with your fingers. The seeds sink, and the white membrane floats. Now you can skim the membrane off, and drain the water with a colander, just like you’d drain pasta.
Presto! All that’s left are the satisfyingly crunchy seeds, ready to much raw, toss over salad greens or in yogurt or hot cereal, or sprinkle over roasted veggies. You can even add them to a rice pilaf or seep them in boiling water with mint sprigs for a yummy tea. Because they’re tiny, crunchy and mildly sweet, pomegranate seeds are easy to cook with. Let these juicy little gems get your culinary juices flowing!