The Powerful Pom

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you've no doubt noticed the surge of pomegranate products, touting all the benefits of the wonder fruit. They're full of antioxidants which are known to fight cancer and heart disease, among other things.

I hadn't ever tried one and when they were on sale recently I decided to buy a couple. Thankfully I grabbed the brochure attached to the display because I had no clue how to open them. They're divided into segments kind of like an orange.
You slice the top open, about half an inch from the crown.
Once open, you can see where the segments are divided. Score the outside of the skin along the segments and then pull apart.

I had no idea what the inside looked like. Beautiful! They're full of gorgoeous kernel-like seeds called arils. The arils are full of juice and burst open when you bite into them. But be careful - the juice stains something fierce!

You don't eat the pith, just the arils. You can scoop them out pretty easily.

The Noodle (my one year old) ate over half a cup in one sitting. It's like I was giving him candy or something. I happened to pull a pomegranate rice recipe out of a recent Better Homes and Gardens so I decided to try it. It was really good! And gorgeous too, since it's full of pistachios and pomegranate seeds.It would be a beautiful side dish for Christmas dinner. We all loved it. The boys ate every bite. They also had fun helping shell the pistachios although we would have ended up with far more pistachios if they weren't as busy eating as they were shelling.

For more information about pomegranate's health benefits and other recipes, check out this article on Epicurious and the POM Wonderful site.