How to eat a pomegranate

"Nature's Skittles"

I'm a little late to jump onto the pomegranate band wagon. Maybe everyone out there already knows how to cut and eat a pomegranate but I just learned how to do it and my mind was blown. It's so much easier than I thought it would be! Here's how it happened: my parents were visiting us for Christmas and my mom decided she wanted to get everyone a pomegranate for their stockings. I thought this was a nice, festive touch to the holiday but I also thought that then we'd be stuck with a lot of pomegranates and no way to eat them. To my surprise my mom shared that she had just learned a really easy way to get to the seeds (she learned it from one of the people who works at Wegmans, one of the best grocery stores on the planet and there aren't any in Colorado). Anyways. My parents eat these all the time now. They sprinkle them in their oatmeal, eat them for snack or bake them into muffins. My parents are spunky, active 60 somethings who volunteer a lot and like to do healthy things so I'll take a note from them and follow their lead. By the way, my mom is who I call with any cooking question and she almost always has an answer for me. She'll probably pop up pretty often in this blog.

The seeds are what you want to go for here- they're wrapped in tasty, juice-filled skins. When you open a pomegranate you'll realize why pomegranate juice is so pricey- it's hard work to get to the juice part! Enjoy these on your daily oats or even stick them in a baggie and sneak them into the movies! My dad calls them "Nature's Skittles"- not sure where he heard that but it's fitting. They are super sweet and a great way to satisfy a craving for candy.

What you need:

1 pomegranate
sharp knife
cutting board
bowl filled with cold water
strainer
container lined with paper towel


1. Slice off the top and bottom of the pomegranate. Don't worry if some juice escapes- these are really juicy and you will still get a lot of the good stuff when you're' done with it.

2. Make sure you have your bowl full of cold water ready- I like to put it in the sink so I can catch the extra bits in one place that's not on my countertop. Carefully score the pomegranate in 3 places and gently pull apart over the bowl.

3. Taking one section at a time, gently remove the skin and the seeds, letting the seeds plop to the bottom of the bowl. If you submerge the piece of pomegranate in the cold water the seeds will easily release and sink to the bottom.

4. When you're done with all sections pick out the little bits of skin that may have made it to the bowl and strain the seeds.

5. Pack in a paper towel-lined airtight container and store in the fridge. These keep for maybe a week in the fridge though we haven't been able to keep them around that long.