I have finally started to find pomegranates in the grocery store and since they are only in season October to January now is the time to enjoy these super-food fruits.
According to the POM Wonderful website (which is FULL of great information re: all things pomegranate) you should choose a pomegranate that feels heavy for its size. That means that it's full of that delicious juice. It doesn’t have to be uniformly red on the outside rind to have lovely seeds within but I tend to pick a darker coloured one anyway.
The seeds, called arils, are very nutritious and full of fibre, antioxidants, and vitamin C. I used to think they were a pain to open but once I learned the technique of scoring them into sections along the white pith and then sinking the seeds in a bowl of water (allowing the membrane to float to the surface), it's easy to get a couple of cups of seeds ready to eat. (There's a video demonstration of the method on the POM website, HERE). It takes me about ten minutes of 'work' to get one prepared but if you don't want to bother with even that, you can buy them ready to eat in a container. You'll pay for the convenience, of course, but it's still worth the splurge to enjoy the fruit.
I store mine in a mason jar in the fridge and enjoy them by the spoonful as a snack throughout the day, sprinkled on yogurt, or added on top of my salads. They are so good! I used to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pomegranate cocktails/martinis made with vodka back in the day, but haven't had one of those for quite a few years. Maybe I'll indulge in one again soon. The juice is amazing and full disclosure, after I cut the fruit on the cutting mat I had to drink up the juice it released. The flavour is incredible.
You can store whole pomegranates for about a month on the counter or a few months (!) in the fridge. I'm going to throw a few in the basement refrigerator to last until the new year; maybe that martini will be to welcome in 2018!
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