Pomegranate

So this week's fruit experiment is a pomegranate!  I was inspired to try this when my friend Kati mentioned she was going to a Pom party and then I saw that the display at the store included a brochure devoted to teaching you how to eat a pomegranate.  I thought a brochure was perfect as I'm never really sure what I'm doing when it comes to eating strange fruit and brochures are really comforting to me.The brochure, as it turns out, was pretty essential, as there were six different steps included in the brochure before you could eat it.

Brochure? Yes, please.

Okay, I could not get the picture to rotate, but here's the brochure, so you can catch my drift. Basically, pomegranates are all about the seeds. You cut the litle guy open and there are hundreds of seeds nestled inside.  The seeds are called arils (see what having a brochure gets you?).  It takes a while to pry them all from the clutches of the pomegranate.  Also, as you're prying them out of it, you accidentally smush a bunch, which sprays juice everywhere and makes your kitchen sink look like a small animal was killed and skinned in it.

So, the whole thing took me about 10 minutes, between the cutting and the prying, the straining out the extraneous bits and the cleaning up. At which point I was thinking it was a lot of work, plus I was overwhelmed with a bowl full of pomegranate seeds. There was no way I could eat them all tonight.  Thankfully, the helpful brochure told me "the juicy arils can be enjoyed for 7 to 10 days after opening the pomegranate. Just make sure you store and refrigerate them in a sealed container. Pom appetit!"

I'm trying to show you how bloody a process this was...

So I went ahead and chowed down on a few.  I really liked the flavor, very sweet without being too sweet. They're seeds too, so they're kind of crunchy.  All around, a pretty great snack.  Sparkpeople tells me a whole pomegranate is only 100 calories, but I would never eat all those seeds at once.  I only had a few spoonfuls, and I'll add the rest to my cereal for the next few days.

The whole bowlful after completing the process

Have you ever tried pomegranates?  Did you think it was worth the work?  I kind of think I would rather try buy just the juice next time...