Pomegranate Cleaning Tips

Pomegranates:

Super healthy- check

Super seasonal- check

Super pain to clean- most definitely

I love pomegranate seeds in salads, with yogurt and granola, alone as a snack, and floating in Prosecco. Until recently though, I avoided pomegranates since they're such a pain to clean, but now I've learned a simple technique to avoid stains and make prepping pomegranates painless.

You'll need:

1 pomegranate (or more!)

1 large bowl filled with water

1 pairing knife

1 sieve

Carefully cut off the ends of the pomegranate but only cut off the red outer layer. If you cut too deep you'll hit the first layer of pomegranate seeds (I hit one seed in the picture below).

Next, score the pomegranate skin 4 times, as if you were going to quarter the pomegranate. Just slice through the red outer layer and barely into the white pith.

Now, this is going to be where the large bowl of water becomes your best friend. Holding the pomegranate under the water, pry one scored section away from the fruit. This will reveal your first set of seeds while the water prevents any rogue juice spray from broken seeds.

Continuing to work under the water, use your thumbs to gently separate the seeds from the white pith. The seeds will sink and the pith will float, which is another added bonus of the water bath.

Continue working with the section until all the seeds are freed and then return to the pomegranate and pry apart another section. Eventually you'll end up with a pile of pit and skin like this.

Pour the excess water out of the bowl but try not to let any seeds escape. Then, place the seeds in a sieve so that you can give the seeds a quick rinse with fresh water and remove any lingering pith. Now you are the proud owner of cleaned pomegranate seeds without stains.