Bite Of Minnesota: Pomegranate Parfaits

When I think of winter fruits, there aren't many that come to mind. The first fruit that pops into my head is winter citrus, merely because I've been ordering citrus from Fruitshare for several years now and it's certainly my bright spot in the middle of winter.

Another winter fruit that rises to the top is the pomegranate. It didn't dawn on me that it's a winter fruit until I tried finding them in July only to be met with flavorless seeds that hardly resembled the bright and tart pomegranate I was familiar with.

If you've ever tried extracting the seeds from a pomegranate, you know it's not a straightforward task and can be time consuming. I've tried various tricks like submerging it in water, knocking it with a wooden spoon, and even carefully carving off the outside membrane. Those methods all produced the same result, none of which I was wowed by. Instead I simply slice off a few pieces of the outer membrane, break it into pieces, grab a large bowl, and park myself on the couch until every last seed is released by hand. Then I rinse the seeds to remove lingering pith and I'm ready to go.

I love having pomegranate seeds on hand for snacking but my favorite use for them is on top of yogurt. It gives my breakfasts a bit of texture and like berries, pomegranates offer a bit of tart and sweet in the morning. Give this chia seed-pomegranate yogurt parfait recipe a whirl or check out the list of recipes Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl pulled together for WCCO Radio.