Comments on: Lick the Produce Section: Instructions included

By: Marisa

Marisa — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:15:56 +0000

At one point, I could have easily said that it’s just not worth the effort. However, in solidarity with the pom, I have a couple of fairly decent (not to mention social) reasons for this healthy little houseguest. On a day when you’re not desperate to eat fruit immediately, chop, soak, and free the seeds. Skim them out and put them in a bowl. You can keep the bowl in the fridge-they’ll hang for a bit before going sour.

A perfect addition to a salad–total crowd pleaser. Really…better than any crouton. It’s like a little punch of juice that you control. Imagine, scarfing some baby romaine, feeling a seed in the mouth, and making a conscious decision to POP it open, releasing its sweet nectar into the mix. Divine.

Also, when mixing fruity sha-sha drinks (both alcoholic and not), throw a few seeds in the glass. They’ll swim about looking ruby-like and fantasmic. People will oooh and aaaah at your innovative charms. My chums and I have created a drink around the pom seeds–we call it mermaid scat. Because, of course, if a mermaid were to poo, it would probably resemble pomegranite seeds.

Thanks for the blog–stumbled on it and found myself ignoring work for the better part of an hour. Keep it up.

By: parkbench

parkbench — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:26:24 +0000

Hey there, new to your blog and liking it a lot!

About the dread pomegranates: they’re yum, but lots of work (though I’ve never done the soak / float / skim routine, just picked out the seeds).

When we were in Turkey in May, I spotted the answer: a juicer. Street vendors chop them in half across their ‘equator’ and squash them in those drop-handle metal juicers. You could easily do the same with a lemon juicer at home, and just run the juice through a strainer. If it’s not sweet enough, mix in a little OJ.

Pomegranate juice and rum with sugar & mint is also PDG. :)

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:42:42 +0000

Just found your blog and hooked!!

I love Pom’s and introduced my DD to them last year and she is now hooked, I buy a couple and deseed them and give them to her for school snack – she now has all her friends hooked too, they are good in salad too.

By: kentuckienne

kentuckienne — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:29:21 +0000

Did you count the seeds? Supposedly a pomegranate has exactly 613 seeds, the same number of commandments/mitzvot that Orthodox Jews identify in the Torah. I learned that in "So you want to be a Jew?" class, but it's also here.

By: chrissie

chrissie — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:20:09 +0000

I think I shall steal this idea from you. I need to start trying new and exciting vegetables and fruit. Of course, that’s terribly difficult out here (our produce section is pathetic) but I can always pick up things from the grocery store in “town” (89 miles away).

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:41:51 +0000

One of my favorite recipes is Roasted Butternut Squash Soup from Williams-Sonoma. I couldn't find the link on their site, but found it here http://www.cooken.com/WebRecipes/HTML_WilliamsSonoma/RoastedButternutSqSoup.html and the only difference I made was to use way less butter and added a little olive oil for browning the onions. It tastes great on cold winter days.

By: Beth

Beth — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 04:14:50 +0000

Hi PQ,

Long time reader; can’t remember if I’ve ever commented before.

I love acorn squash, and actually have one sitting on my counter waiting to be cooked (probably with dinner tonight).

I ate pomegranates in Italy and never soaked one … I wonder if soaking in water makes it easier to get the seeds out.

By the way, I love your blog. I just wish your book title was “Half-Assed: The Last 200 Pounds Are the Hardest.”

By: the former veggie paparazzo

the former veggie paparazzo — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:05:43 +0000

I had a really tasty salad for lunch that had pomegranate seeds in it. Let’s see, what else did it contain . . . lettuce (you may have guessed that), chicken breast, feta, mandarin orange bits, a white balsamic vinaigrette. . . . That may have been all. The pomegranate seeds provided such nice pops of flavor; I’ve tried them in various things, and that was my favorite use of them. Bacon and toasted walnuts would have also been good additions to that salad.

By: LM

LM — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:18:51 +0000

PQ- I have the solution to your pomegranate woes! My father taught me this trick… This technique is best done over the sink (to catch the residual splatter) and into a bowl. First cut the pomegranate in half (or perhaps even quarters if its a particularly large pomegranate), hold the pomegranate with the skin facing you and the seeds facing your hand, and then hit the skin side of the pomegranate with the back of a soup spoon. If done right, the skin will start to loosen up the seeds inside and the seeds will just fall out!! It takes a whole of 2 minutes so you can feel free to enjoy the pomegranate without the hassle of separating the seeds one by one. Just make sure all your fingers are out of the way when hitting the pomegranate… I learned that the hard way…

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:42:48 +0000

The squash baked with apples & brown sugar is a dish that I make when I’m going to a potluck of carnivores. You don’t have to use a lot of sugar, but even a little helps non-vegetable eaters to get used to the idea of eating veggies. Some people can’t go “cold turkey” into eating healthy foods, you have to ease them into it.