Learn how to easily seed a pomegranate and juice the seeds! In this post I will walk you through my tried-and-true methods for removing seeds from a pomegranate, and the easiest way to juice the arils.
For the first few years that I made our Rosh Hashanah meal, the task I dreaded most was seeding the pomegranate. Extracting the itty bitty juicy red seeds (also known as arils) from a pomegranate can be a daunting task. I used to peel the fruit and navigate my way through it, staining my clothes and squishing lots of seeds along the way. Since that time, I have learned some helpful methods that make seeding pomegranates a snap!
There are many ways to seed a pomegranate. I’ve outlined two of my favorite methods below. The first method is fastest, but you will lose a bit of juice in the process. The second method takes a bit longer and is messier, but you won’t get pruney hands from deseeding underwater. Either method works, so choose what makes the most sense to you.
As an alternative to these methods, some cooks prefer to cut the pomegranate in half and whack the heck out of it with a spoon to dislodge the seeds. This works, but I find it messy. Juice gets everywhere, and your wrist can quickly become tired if you have a lot of pomegranates to seed. Use one of the kinder, gentler methods outlined below to save yourself the violent effort. I mean, really. What did that pomegranate ever do to you? 🙂
Seeding your own pomegranates sure beats paying a premium for boxed seeds, which can go for as much as $6 for a small box. It’s also really simple.
Once you’ve extracted all your pomegranate seeds, you can eat them whole or juice them. I’ve described my favorite simple juicing method below. Pomegranate juice is very healthy (it contains more antioxidants than red wine), but it can be expensive. One pomegranate contains up to a half cup of juice, so you can really save yourself some money by juicing your own pomegranates.
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How to Seed and Juice a Pomegranate
Ingredients
For Seeding Method 1, you will need
- 1 large bowl
- 1 small sharp knife
- Mesh strainer or slotted spoon
- 1 colander or strainer with small holes
For Seeding Method 2, you will need
- 1 pomegranate
- 1 small sharp knife
- 2 bowls (1 large, 1 small)
- 1 dark colored kitchen towel
To juice a pomegranate, you will need
- Blender
- Mesh strainer
- Container for liquid
- Spoon
Instructions
HOW TO SEED A POMEGRANATE: METHOD 1
- Make a shallow slit at the top of the pomegranate where the knob/stem is (this part is known as the crown). Cut all the way around the top of the rind, creating a shallow circle. Don't push the knife in too deep, or you may burst some seeds.
- Pull the crown of the pomegranate off to reveal the inner seeds.
- Cut three shallow slits through the outer rind, following three of the white pith lines, from the top of the fruit to the bottom.
- Pull the fruit apart to create three large sections.
- Remove any large pieces of pith that are visible.
- Submerge the sections in a large bowl of cold water.
- Break apart the sections underneath the water, separating the seeds from the rind and pith. As you remove the seeds, they will sink to the bottom of the bowl. The pith will rise to the top and float. Discard the large chunks of rind (the peel).
- When all the seeds have been removed, use a mesh strainer or slotted spoon to remove the floating pieces of pith from the surface of the water. A few seeds may float as well; separate these out and return them to the bowl.
- Drain the seeds in a colander. Remove any additional pieces of pith that may have mixed into the seeds.
HOW TO SEED A POMEGRANATE: METHOD 2
- Place the pomegranate in one of the bowls. Place the other bowl nearby.
- Make a shallow slit at the top of the pomegranate around the crown. Cut all the way around the top of the rind, creating a shallow circle. Don't push the knife in too deep, or you may burst some seeds.
- Pull the crown of the pomegranate off to reveal the inner seeds.
- Turn the pomegranate over. Repeat the process of creating a narrow slit in the rind, cutting a circle around the base of the fruit.
- Pull the bottom off of the fruit.
- Turn the pomegranate back over. You will see six white strips of pith around the edges of the fruit. Cut slits in the sides of the rind, following the lines of the pith, from the top of the fruit to the bottom.
- Pull the fruit apart. You will now have 8 sections of fruit (including the top and the bottom), with the seeds fully exposed.
- Gently loosen the seeds from the pith and place them into the clean bowl. Keep a dark-colored towel handy to clean up any juice that might escape from the seeds. Careful, pomegranate juice can stain.Before long, you will have a bowl full of luscious pomegranate seeds! Discard the rind and the pith.
HOW TO JUICE A POMEGRANATE
- Place your pomegranate seeds in a blender.
- Pulse the seeds a few times to break them apart and release their juice. Don't blend them for a long period of time, or the seeds will break apart and create cloudy juice.
- Use a mesh strainer to strain the pomegranate liquid into a container.
- Use the back of a spoon to gently push against the pomegranate pulp and extract as much juice as possible.
- Chill, if desired, and enjoy.
Sarah Gilbert says
I have no problem getting the seeds out, and have blended to extract the juice, but it just tastes bitter, which is not the taste I remember from the Middle East. Yet you say to use a blender, so I’m no closer to making juice.
Tori Avey says
Sarah, I don’t think the blender is causing the bitterness. When I juice pomegranates here in California using the blender method, they taste the same way they do in the Middle East. You can also juice the pomegranate using a hand juicer (read through the comments for tips), but it won’t extract as much juice as the blender method. Perhaps try another source for pomegranates– maybe the ones you are purchasing have a naturally bitter taste to them?
Deborah says
I have a pomegranate tree and make jelly every year. I use a food mill with the finest disk to juice the arils. I also fashion a towel over the top of the mill around the crank to avoid splashback. The mill strips the pulp off the seeds and extracts a maximum amount of juice leaving the seeds behind in the disk.
Anis Sayani says
Thanks for sharing the experience. In my opinion (I know pomegranate has done nothing wrong to me 🙂 on the contrary it is really beneficial to us) beating with wooden handle of spatula all around the body of pomegranate before engaging in the process mentioned at “The Shiksa in the Kitchen” , seeds become loose in their sockets making itmore easy to take them out. By the way Shiksa in my language means punishment , So punishment in kitchen if beneficial should be Ok 🙂
Tori Avey says
Anis– what language is that?? I know in India shiksa means teacher…
Toria says
We used a garlic press and it worked great for juicing pomegranates.
Jack T says
I use the same method of extracting the seeds from the skin and pulp, but I put the seeds in a cone strainer with a wooden pestle made to fit the cone and extract the juice into a food grade container. I have a wooden cover over the container with an opening to fit the cone strainer. I juiced nearly 10 gals of seeds and got something like 5gal’s of juice, which I put into mason jars and froze.
Amin Chy. says
Very rich full website. I have collect information from this web.
Ajay says
Have a question, after removing the juice, I think there was still lofts of flesh still remaining with the seeds? How do I reduce the amount of fruit that is wasted after this
procedure?
There is still lot of pomegranate ‘flesh” attached to the seeds.. Or it is considered cost of juicing the fruit?
Tori Avey says
Hi Ajay, did you use the blender method I outlined in this post? If you did you would have wasted no flesh, since the seeds are fully removed from the pomegranate and then blended up and strained to make the juice.
Ajay says
Yes, I used the bleeder pulse mode. Thanks for the reply. May be I just need to get more efficient then. I wanted to know, if what I got was the norm , or if there was scope for improvement . Clearly there is!! 🙂
Tori Avey says
Hi Ajay, try blending the seeds a bit more next time, this will help to “use up” all of the pulp and extract the most juice. 🙂
Francesco says
Tori, thanks for the ideas! I just received an automatic jam and jelly maker — who knew such a device even existed! — and one of the included recipes is for pomegranate jelly. Of course, it calls for store-bought juice. What?!? Isn’t it bad enough that they’ve automated my pastime and taken away some of the fun that alchemists like me crave? Anyway, I looked for an easier way to seed and juice poms, and of course your lovely blog was at the top of the search results. I should’ve known and just searched here right off the bat! Thanks again!
Tori Avey says
You’re welcome Francesco! 🙂
Jack Treahy says
I just got through seeding and juicing several hundred pounds of seeds to get a really clear 5gal of pure juice. I have some photos of me posing at the work spot, and of the buckets of seeds and bucket of juice. I freeze the juice in mason jars, vaccum sealing the container. I run the juice twice through several layers of cheese cloth, and I mix the entire batch together so I homogenize the entire batch for uniformity.
Kendra says
Oh my god, I’ve been doing this so wrong! Thank you!
edith says
Thanks for info on how to make juice
Kathy Saint says
Thank you whomever you are who suggested the potato ricer. It works like a charm. It takes a bit of filling (not more than maybe a half cup of arils at a time) and emptying, but with medium pressure I expressed beautiful clear juice. 6 rather large fruit seeded and juiced in about a half hour. Thank you very much!!
Phoebe says
Just a quick thing for those cooks who like to sample the product a bit before it goes out the kitchen: you’re never going to get /all/ the juice out from the pulp when juicing, so take a little break, spoon them into your mouth, and suck out the juice before spitting and discarding 🙂
Dottie says
Phoebe, I thought I was the only one that do that…..it’s even better that way, you go girl!
Dottie says
Thanks for the demonstration, I have been juicing pomegranates for 3 years during the season here in Michigan, I pour little plastic pints containers of it and put them in my freezer. I really love the health benefits of this fruit and look forward each year to juicing.
Diane DB says
Jv, I would say if they are sweet they are ripe, maybe a different variety, there are quite a few. Google pomegranates and you will probably find the kind you have. There are not sweet at all if not ripe.
Thanks for the excellent information everyone, blessings.
Pomegranates are also symbols of friendship. In my book, Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and symbols it says the name means apple of many seeds. It is considered a symbol of fertility and an aphrodisiac. Also the book says was the Tree of Knowledge.Alot of association with sensuality except in Christianity where it is an emblem of compassion
JV says
I have a pomegranate tree that started having split fruits this week and I just picked it clean but the fruits are not all red. When opening them, all the arils are mostly clear with only a tiny spot of red on them. Can these pomegranates still be juiced? The arils taste very sweet like they always do, they just lack the color. I hope I didn’t screw up my harvest this year!
Christine says
Hi, as far as clear arils go, I have heard of a white pomegranate, that is supposed to be even sweeter than the red. Perhaps you have one of those. I just de-seeded 28 poms yesterday and was looking for a quick way to juice the arils, thanks for the blender idea!
Trudie Bishoff says
I have a tree with fruit this yr. They are not real red but the fruit is very sweet. Our tree is about 3 yrs.
At our local supermarket, I had bought pomegranate salsa,& it was very tasty. I am going to try & juice & make salsa. Any suggestions for this? Thanks ,Trudie Bishoff
Jo says
I love pomegranates. I purchased a snall tree from the nursery last year.It is now about 5 feet tall and has had a few flowers which have all fallen off. How long does it take to produce pomegranates? I’m anxious to have some in my garden to enjoy.
This is the first time I have posted.
Tori Avey says
Hi Jo! Lucky you… I’d love to have a pomegranate tree. Unfortunately I’m not sure how long it will take, as I’m not a gardener (in fact I kind of have the opposite of a green thumb). Another reader may know, though. 🙂
Dana says
I planted a tree 4 years ago, it does drop fruit the lst year, the second year I got 7 pomegranates, and 14 the next and this year looks like 16. I do live in a cold region of Australia and the tree is deciduous here.
Bobbie says
Hi Dana – I am in Western Australia. I have had to put cotton bags over the flowers as soon as they appear – leaving a gap so pollinators can get in. If I don’t do this, possums, bush rats, parrots, or crows remove the flowers – sometimes leaving behind half eaten remains. I leave the bags on until I pick the fruit – as humans are not the only ones who like them.
Patricia says
This is grand. I live in California and we’ve been making pomegranate jelly since I was a little kid. We usually use the pectin bottle recipe for tart cherry jelly, or something similar, according to taste. It makes a beautiful jewel-red, tart-sweet addition to a PBJ!
We always used a crank-down juicer of the type described, doing either halves or quarters, depending on the size of the fruit. I would only say look for a large crank-down juicer, with plenty of gears, to lighten the work load on your shoulder muscles. By the time we got done with a “lug” of 40-60 fruits, we all had aching arms and shoulders!
TY for this wonderful (and, for me, nostalgic) page.
Danny says
When we were kids, we used to squeeze the fruit all around, gentle enough not to break the skin, but with enough pressure to burst the seeds inside. After going around the whole fruit and bursting the majority of the seeds inside, we removed a small portion of the skin and drank right from the fruit. Toward the end, you can squeeze to get the every last drop. No mess… and quite delicious… and fun too! Try it with one that has a healthy enough skin to not break while squeezing.
Marisa says
I read somewhere that you can juice pomegranates by putting the seeds on warm in the crockpot and they just melt. When my pomegranates are ready I’m going to try it!