Pomegranate Juice?

By Jonathan Berohn

Yes, I was initially as skeptical as you undoubtedly are right now. I mean, I like pomegranates as much as the next guy-probably more, truth be told-but pomegranate juice?

Like I said, though, I like pomegranates pretty well, and I have to admit eating them can be a bit tedious, so I decided to give Pom Pomegranate juice a closer look (gotta love the clever name they came up with, huh?)

Health Benefits

I'm sure you're all familiar with antioxidants by now.  Well, pomegranate juice actually has more antioxidants than blueberries (which, if you haven't been following closely are suddenly the healthiest fruit around-except for pomegranates, apparently).  Of course, there's always the taste issue.  Cod liver oil is chock full of wonderful healthy things but one can only choke down so much of a liquid that tastes like.oh, rotten dead fish.  Pomegranate juice, on the other hand is actually quite tasty.  It can be a bit tart to the uninitiated, but anyone who has drunk cranberry juice is completely prepared.  And for the new pomegranate converts, Pom has several concoctions of pomegranate plus other juices to take a bit of the edge off and make sure you still get your antioxidant quotient.

Pomegranate Juice as Ingredient

One of the additional benefits of Pom is that we now also have a ready source of pomegranate juice for cooking.  Pomegranate juice makes the base for an excellent sauce for both meats and desserts (with appropriate tweaks, of course).  For both recipes you'll want to start with 2 cups pomegranate juice (1 large bottle of Pom) and reduce it over medium heat until you're down to about 1/2 your original volume.  For a meat sauce, season with a bit of salt and pepper.  For an interesting touch of lemony flavor, I like to add ground coriander seed.  This sauce goes very well with pork, chicken, any white fish.

For a dessert sauce you can simply serve plain over ice cream, cheesecake, or pound cake.  Orange zest adds a nice touch of flavor, as does a splash of kirsch wasser (I know-there go your health benefits-but we're talking dessert here anyway).  If you really need it, you can also add a bit of sugar, but I'd try it without first.