I absolutely adore pomegranates – fragrant, juicy, bright, bursting with colors, flavour, tang and full of vitamins. They can make any salad or veg dish look funkier and brighter.
I love them not just for nutrition and good looks, but also for the process of peeling/deseeding them. Many people rarely buy this fruit or get ready to eat seeds in a plastic container, because the peeling process seems tedious and messy. I, on the contrary, enjoy peeling pomegranates – it is a therapeutic, almost meditative process satisfying every sense when unveiling tightly packed clusters of juicy arils.
You can find many hacks and tricks on YouTube on how to peel a pomegranate easy and quickly. I don’t use those, enjoying slow manual process instead, concentrating on something that seems boring, but helps the mind to rest and senses to awaken. My fingers get dirty, sometimes even my face and clothes from random juice bursts and it feels so good. Pomegranate lets me get in close contact with it, feel it, not just taste, it requires a special attention and rewards with delicious arils those who are not afraid to touch it.
Touch your food, look at it attentively, smell, taste, before cooking or consuming mindlessly. Every fruit or vegetable has a story to tell. It might seem crazy but putting the awareness of your senses on it will improve your cooking and eating massively. Be mindful and sensual, pomegranates or other fruits and veggies will tell you when there is a time to eat or use them.
And if you feel stressed out try deseeding a pomegranate by bashing the half with a wooden spoon. Loud, fun, messy but efficient 😉
So next time you see a beautiful pomegranate at the market pick it up and enjoy it with all your senses. Just be aware of the deceiving nature of those fruits, the most beautiful ones from the outside are often not ripe enough, so look for darker, even slightly bruised ones to find the sweetest juiciest arils inside.