Pomegranate Relish Recipe Fermented with Honey

Reader Contribution by Emily Vincunas
Published on October 17, 2019
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Guess what? It’s Pom season in the Northern Hemisphere and boy oh boy, we are EXCITED. Back in the early days of fruit selection (i.e. when we were young tykes and mom would take us grocery shopping), we’d get to pick out our favorite fruits for snacks. Most commonly picked up fruits included grapes, bananas, oranges, you know, the boring stuff. But I was a rebel. I enjoyed the frustrating pomegranate that no one else liked. It was beautiful, extremely tasty, and nobody in my immediate circle wanted to take an hour just to get some sweet, juicy, seedy little gems, which meant that they were all mine!! I still derive pleasure from finding a quiet spot and eating each little ruby-red jewel of intense flavor and texture. Please, if you haven’t eaten a pomegranate in a comfortable, quiet spot, you must. Opening a pomegranate is not as daunting as most people think, really. Once I figured out the right way to open them (see this video ) it was a lot easier to achieve instant gratification.

Although a ripe, beautiful pomegranate on it’s own is a wonderful thing, there’s a lot of versatility to this fruit and it lends itself well to many, many dishes. We wanted to try our hand at fermenting pomegranates and see what we could come up with. It was quite the experience due to the natural sugars present in pomegranate seeds and we loved a lot of the results! One of our favorite recipes involves honey, which makes this recipe so perfect for this season. It’s sweet, tangy, smooth and luxurious, especially paired with brie and figs, or as an oatmeal topper in the crisp, cold mornings. Please try this delicious concoction and tell us what you think!

Photo by Simon Matzinger from Pixabay

Pomegranate Relish Fermented with Honey

Ingredients

  • 3 cups pomegranate seeds (3-4 pomegranates)
  • 1-1/2 tbsp grated ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or use 1 3-inch cinnamon stick)
  • Zest of 1 small orange (or large lemon)
  • 1-1/4 cup raw honey (it’s gotta be raw!)

Instructions

1. Seed the pomegranate (see video above for the best way to do this).

2. Put all ingredients in a jar, then just cover the fruit with honey and gently stir in (we like to use a chopstick when stirring this ferment). Wait for the air bubbles to escape and then top with the remainder of the honey. Lid with your Go Ferment! Lid then fill the airlock with water (or vodka if you’re concerned about fruit flies).

3. For the next week, keep in a dark, room temperature spot (or cover with a cloth to keep light out). After a week, take a taste and if you’re happy with it, put in the fridge to halt fermentation!

Top whatever you like with this relish. Some of our family favorite dishes, such as pumpkin panna cotta, just get SO much better with it! It’s also really, really good over Thanksgiving turkey. You can save the honey for later and use it when sweetening ice cream, sorbet, popsicles, or anything sweet and cold. If you heat it up for warm dishes or drinks, it will lose some nutritional value but will still taste epic.

We hope this recipe gives you some great ideas and opens up a world of pomegranate goodness to you. Let us know how it went and what you use your pom relish for in the comments!

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Mother Earth News Real Food & Preserving
Mother Earth News Real Food & Preserving
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