Homemade Pomegranate Syrup

I love pomegranates. Each winter I purchase a case and slowly, over the course of a few weeks, I wait for everyone in the house to leave so I can enjoy a little alone time, just me and my pomegranate. I fully enjoy the process of cracking one open and carefully extracting all the ruby red juice filled arils, savoring each and every one of them as they give under the slightest pressure and release their intoxicating juice. It's a ritual truly look forward to.

The year before last I decided to tackle harvesting the arils from an entire case in one sitting. Several hours later, my fingernails were stained beyond belief, but I was left with a gigantic bowl full of thousands of wonderful arils that the entire family enjoyed for at least a week (they keep remarkably well in the fridge). When pomegranate season rolls around (in about 6 months), I'll show you how I extract the lovely arils. For now I have to resort to buying bottled juice. Drinking bottled juice isn't nearly as satisfying as eating hundreds of juicy arils, but the flavor and health benefits are equal. I buy large bottles at Costco. Smaller bottles are readily available at grocery stores.

Recently I was in the mood for something sweet and I had a bottle of pomegranate juice in the fridge, so I made a batch of pomegranate syrup and I really love the way it turned out - so sticky and sweet, yet slightly tangy. Amazing stuff. I served it on vanilla ice cream, but I have a jar of leftover syrup in the fridge. I'm thinking crepes, french toast, pancakes, waffles, summer drinks... so many delicious possibilities.

I hope you'll give this yummy stuff a try.

Homemade Pomegranate Syrup

makes 3/4 cup

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup pomegranate juice (fresh or bottled)

• 1/2 cup honey (or light corn syrup, maple syrup, golden syrup)

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a medium sauce pan, combine ingredients.

2. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce by half.

3. Serve over ice cream, crepes, french toast, pancakes, waffles, summer drinks, etc. Refrigerate leftovers.

Chilled Strawberry Soup

What do you do when you have a plethora of strawberries and Greek yogurt in the fridge? Make Strawberry Soup!

Chilled Strawberry Soup

makes about 7 cups

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries, cleaned and diced

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup plain Greek Yogurt

• 1 cup half and half

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place diced strawberries in a large bowl and sprinkle with sugar; stir to coat.

2. At this point you can proceed with the recipe right away, but I usually allow the strawberries to macerate for about an hour until they exude their juice (don't discard the juice). Put everything in a blender (juice included) and puree until smooth.

3. Chill before serving.

Now for the design. This is how I made it. Sorry, no photos, but I’ll draw a diagram for you.

I used a squeeze bottle to add a circle of heavy cream to the top of my cold soup.

Then I swirled a toothpick through the cream in a circular pattern like this. In reality my swirls were much bigger - sorry, I can't draw to save my life, but you'll figure it out.

Voila! Now you try - prepare yourself for all the oooh and ahhhs.