One of my favorite fall fruits is pomegranate. They are sweet and juicy and super versatile. The only downside to buying pomegranate arils at the grocery store is that they are SO expensive. For a long time I was intimidated to get the juicy arils out of the shell by myself, but once I saw them at the store this year I was determined to do it myself! There is definitely nothing to be a afraid of, they are simple to de-seed and you get so many more than you would from a store batch. Check it out:

What you’ll need: 1 pomegranate, a sharp chef’s knife, a bowl of cool water, a strainer.

Start by cutting the butt end off, shown above.

Then with your knife score the skin three times.

Into a bowl of cool water, just start lightly pulling the seeds off the membrane and letting them drop into the water.

Keep doing this until all of the seeds are into the bowl.

Strain the arils into a bowl and you are ready to rock and roll

There are so many things you can do with the arils; you could eat them as is, drink the juice, make a pomegranate martini with the juice, garnish a desert or salad. Let you imagination run wild.

To get the juice out of the pomegranate just put the seeds into a plastic bag, with a rolling pin or the butt of your hand pop the seeds to release the juice and then cut a tiny bit from the tip of the bag and drain the juice into a glass. There is nothing better than fresh squeezed juice!

Happy drinking!