I started out with the intention of just having a simple salad with greens, walnuts and dried cranberries, but then started adding a bunch of other stuff that looked good.
Here, we have greens (bagged spinach-radicchio mix), dried cranberries, walnuts, mandarin oranges, crimini mushrooms, pomegranate seeds, and crumbled feta. The dressing is a bottled raspberry walnut vinaigrette.
A note about pomegranate seeds...
I've always been perplexed by the pomegranate. Really, all I knew about it was:
-The juice is supposed to have magical health benefits.
-The juice is tasty, if not a tad intense (like cranberry juice on crack).
-The juice is extremely expensive.
-The Pom Wonderful brand has adorable packaging design.
But, as far as what a pomegranate actually is, I really had no idea.
Is it fruit? Is it seeds? (turns out, it's both)
So I bought one, on a whim, to do a little investigating. Basically, it's made of these pithy chambers that contain tons (hundreds?) of these plump, red seeds. They're kind of like jumbo versions of the little pulp sacs that make up a citrus fruit, except each one has a seed in the middle of it (which is fully edible, and delightfully crunchy).
The method I used to get the seeds out is to score the fruit in quarters so it pries apart easily. Take a piece in your hand (with the skin facing up), hold it over a bowl, then just whack it repeatedly with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall right out into the bowl (pick out any pieces of pith that fall into the bowl). Word to the wise: do not wear white when you do this. Though not incredibly messy, there was a tiny bit of splatter involved— and that pomegranate juice will stain (like red wine).
-The juice is extremely expensive.
-The Pom Wonderful brand has adorable packaging design.
But, as far as what a pomegranate actually is, I really had no idea.
Is it fruit? Is it seeds? (turns out, it's both)
So I bought one, on a whim, to do a little investigating. Basically, it's made of these pithy chambers that contain tons (hundreds?) of these plump, red seeds. They're kind of like jumbo versions of the little pulp sacs that make up a citrus fruit, except each one has a seed in the middle of it (which is fully edible, and delightfully crunchy).
The method I used to get the seeds out is to score the fruit in quarters so it pries apart easily. Take a piece in your hand (with the skin facing up), hold it over a bowl, then just whack it repeatedly with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall right out into the bowl (pick out any pieces of pith that fall into the bowl). Word to the wise: do not wear white when you do this. Though not incredibly messy, there was a tiny bit of splatter involved— and that pomegranate juice will stain (like red wine).
1 comment:
You can juice it like you would an orange (really, it's true.) Just cut in half and use a citrus juicer and the juice comes pouring out. That way you won't have to pay for the expensive POM brand. :-)
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