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Pomegranates, the easy Nigella way


Chufi

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I´ve seen some discussions recently on how to get the seeds from a pomegranate, all intructions seem needlessly complicated to me. I thought about this yesterday as I was making my salad with feta and pomegranate seeds. I saw Nigella Lawson use this method on one of her shows a couple of years ago, it´s easy and fast!

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Slice your pomegranate in half

Hold the half cut side down over a large bowl

Use the side of a wooden spoon and tap hard on the outside of the pomegranate. The first few taps nothing happens but then the seeds get dislodged and voila, a bowl full of seeds and an empty shell!

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Edited by Chufi (log)
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Seriously! I've got to try this so I can relieve my red-stained fingers from the duty of breaking up the various pods.

...wine can of their wits the wise beguile, make the sage frolic, and the serious smile. --Alexander Pope

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I happen to have 3 or 4 pomegranates presently waiting to be seeded. I'll be able to do a side-by-side comparison with Nigella's method, which I'd never seen before, and my favorite method to date. Thanks, Chufi!

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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I was recently told this secret method by a coworker who is from India and says that is how it is done over there, and that you can get fresh pomegranate juice made on the spot. Man- that sounds good. I gotta get a juicer.

I wonder if it'll taste as good if you don't have to work too hard for it... :wink:

aka Michael

Chi mangia bene, vive bene!

"...And bring us the finest food you've got, stuffed with the second finest."

"Excellent, sir. Lobster stuffed with tacos."

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Wow. I've had 4 pomegranates tucked away for experimentation, and I just did a side-by-side comparison of methods.

I did 2 using my previous favorite method, noted above. I did 2 using the Nigella easy way. Nigella's method wins, hands-down: it's easier, quicker, less messy AND has less pulp and skin to separate from the seeds afterward.

I did find that I needed to evert the pomegranate halves to get the last few delicious seeds out. (Perhaps that means I didn't whack hard enough or long enough or with a heavy enough implement, but since I'd forgotten that I was supposed to use a heavy wooden spoon and was whacking with the flat of my Santuko blade instead, my lack of verve might be forgiven.) However, I also found that it was pretty easy. By the time most of the seeds were out of the pomegranate half I was working over, the pulp was soft enough to turn inside out without tearing anything.

Thank you for that note, Chufi!

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Just tried your method. IT WORKS.

Thanks,

Jmahl

The Philip Mahl Community teaching kitchen is now open. Check it out. "Philip Mahl Memorial Kitchen" on Facebook. Website coming soon.

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Another cool trick. If you want to juice a pomegranate, just slice it in half, grab a lemon juicing tool, and juice the pomegranate the same you would a lemon. Strain the juice (a few little bits might get in there), and voilà!

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My coworker has a couple of prolific pomegranate trees and she always brings me several grocery bags of them at a time becaue I once mentioned I like them.

With that many pomegranates, have you tried making a pomegranate reduction/syrup? There are a lot of uses for that, too.

 

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Tim Oliver

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My coworker has a couple of prolific pomegranate trees and she always brings me several grocery bags of them at a time becaue I once mentioned I like them.

With that many pomegranates, have you tried making a pomegranate reduction/syrup? There are a lot of uses for that, too.

Yes I have!

Question: do the seeds freeze well? I meant to try it last year and didn't gt around to it.

Edited by KristiB50 (log)
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