Five Ways to Use a Fresh Pomegranate Before It Goes to Waste

A whole pomegranate can be intimidating enough that it sits on the counter until it’s past its best. Once it’s deseeded, though, it’s one of the more versatile things in the kitchen — and deseeding takes less time than it looks like it should, especially done underwater in a bowl to keep the juice from going everywhere.

Beyond eating the seeds straight, they’re good scattered over yogurt or oatmeal for a bit of crunch, stirred into a green salad with a sharp vinaigrette, or blitzed and strained into a quick dressing. Wilting greens with warm olive oil and a spoonful of seeds at the end is an easy way to make a plain side dish look and taste like more effort than it was.

If you’ve got more seeds than you’ll use in a few days, they freeze well on a tray and keep for months — handy for the next time a recipe calls for “a handful of pomegranate” and you don’t want to buy a whole one just for that.