Edible garnets bursting with sweet tart juice and a crunchy center. These are pomegranate arils, the juice-filled sacs that encase the seeds of this delightful winter produce.
Pomegranates are an ancient fruit that were known by the Romans. Widely cultivated in the Mediterranean, the Italian name for them is melagrana.
I’m always excited when pomegranates show up in the market but the season is relatively short. Fresh pomegranates from California are available September through January. The Wonderful or Red Wonderful is the most common variety grown in this country.
For the best winter salad imaginable, in a bowl whisk two to three parts extra-virgin olive oil with one part lemon juice or red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Add mixed greens, cut-up clementine sections and a generous handful of pomegranate arils. Toss and serve garnished with coarsely ground black pepper.
To learn how to select and store pomegranates, as well as extract the arils without giving yourself a juice bath (word of warning: don’t wear white), visit the Pomegranate Council. They offer recipes and of useful information such as the tip that pomegranate arils freeze just fine. I’m going to try that to extend the season for these edible garnets.
Hi Sharon,
Thanks this link is working – the site looks really interesting. Yes we are in California. The blog is new, so not too many posts yet but I’m having a lot of fun with it. It was started a month ago to share recipes and food related stuff with family and friends. In the process I have discovered that there are so many people out there with the same interest. Both my husband and I cook a lot – so this is a lot of fun for me — only problem as always is finding the time for everything! Anyhow the blog was a good conversation topic for his family in Italy over the holidays!
First of all congratulations on your site, it’s lovely! Of course I’m a little biased here.
Our family is a big pomegranate fan. We have three trees and supply a bunch of friends in addition to having plenty for ourselves. We are still using this year’s pomegranates to make various sauces for deserts … they are simply delicious. I tried your “Pomegranate council” link but it does not seem to be working any idea why? I am interested in any faster, but equally good way to extract the pomegranate juice (we manually extract the arils and then use a potato masher to get the juice! – mainly because we want to get only the juice); if you have any information on this you could share – I’d love to have it.
Hello, Chris,
Thanks for your comment! You are so lucky to have pomegranate trees. You must be in California. I will visit your blog.
I just tested the hyper-link on my Pomegranate post and it works for me. If you want to try the URL directly, it is http://www.pomegranates.org.
I’ve never extracted juice but I think a manual food mill (looks like a saucepan with a sieve bottom; has a hand-cranked flat blade that presses down food between the blade and the sieve) would work well. I use it to puree cooked tomatoes to screen out the seeds and skin.
Sharon
Beautiful fruit….unfortunatly remind you that summer is far.
I love pomegranates! Your simple recipe for salad is something I’ve made a few times and it’s always delicious.
Great story. Your photo is spectacular!