How to cut a pomegranate

This game-changing method for getting the seeds out of a pomegranate is fast, clean, and easy.

A pomegranate and a knife on a cutting board.

I love pomegranate seeds, but for a long time I avoided buying pomegranates because of what a mess it was to get all of the seeds out. Juice all over the place, stained hands and clothes, and sure, the seeds pop out satisfyingly, but it takes forevvvver.

Then I learned the trick! You do almost all of the work while the pomegranate is underwater in a big bowl. This method is fast, clean, and easy. I learned it a few years ago from my friend Kal.

Start by filling a large bowl with water.

A pomegranate is held with a left hand while the right makes a cut in the top. It's very close to the top, about a quarter-inch.

Cut off the very top and bottom of the pomegranate.

Left hand is holding a pomegranate with its top cut off, while a knife cuts into the outer rind vertically, top to bottom. The knife is only a couple millimeters into the fruit.

Gently cut vertically, from top to bottom, but only through the outer rind, just a couple millimeters. Try to avoid cutting the seeds. Do it about five or six times around the outside edge. Sometimes you can kind of line it up with where the white inner membrane meets the outer rind, but don’t sweat it if you can’t see where that is.

The pomegranate is now submerged in a large glass bowl filled with water. You can see five of those vertical cuts have been made around the outer edge.

Drop the pomegranate into the bowl of water. You can see the cuts in the outer rind—they look much deeper than they are, because I angled the knife in a bit right at the top. You only want those cuts to be in the outer rind.

A cutting board has a very small bit of bright red pomegranate juice, and there is a slightly dirty knife, and the top and bottom slivers of the pomegranate. Very quick cleaning.

Discard the top and bottom pieces, and clean your cutting board and knife. That’s it for the mess, and it's hardly anything! It’s going to be clean work from here out.

A hand grips the submerged pomegranate, and is pulling a big chunk apart. Lots of pomegranate seeds are now visible, along with thin white membrane.

With your hands under the water with the pomegranate, break the it into about four to six big chunks, using the top-to-bottom cuts you made.

A hand is holding a submerged chunk of the pomegranate, which has rows of small, jewel-like seeds still attached. The thumb is pushing the seeds off.

Use your thumbs to gently pop the seeds off of the pith, still working under the water.

Top view of the glass bowl. White hunks of the rind and membrane are floating at the top, and small, red seeds are sitting at the bottom.

Here's the real magic in this technique: the seeds will sink to the bottom, but every last bit of the pith and membrane will float. They're like boys and girls on opposite sides of the room at a middle school dance in the '80s.

Side view of the glass bowl. White and red hunks of the rind and membrane are floating at the top, and small, red seeds are sitting at the bottom.

Once the seeds have all been popped off and are at the bottom, scoop the pith and membrane out of the top of the bowl and throw them out.

Top view of the glass bowl. The big hunks of rind and membrane have been removed, now there are only a very small amount of teensy bits of white floating at the top.

If there are any teeny little bits of white pith hanging out on the seeds, pop them off. They’ll float up and you can discard them.

Once you’ve got all of the membrane and pith pieces out, strain the seeds out of the water. Pull out any seeds that are soft or brown, and throw those away.

A pile of pomegranate seeds are now out of the water, and are seen at the bottom of a container.

You’ve got pomegranate seeds! Store them in a container in the fridge.

A rectangular tart with bright, deep pink custard is studded with pomegranate seeds in a decorative geometric pattern

Pomegranate seeds are great for snacking, or adding a little pop of crunchy sweetness to a salad, but they are particularly fun to use for decorating. This is a cranberry tart I made a couple Christmases ago; the pomegranate seeds look like little gems!


A nifty thing I learned in writing this post: I've often seen the seeds referred to as "arils," but according to this publication in the journal Foods from last year, "seeds" is correct, but "arils" is not. The proper name for the fleshy, fruity bit around the actual reproductive elements at the core would be "testa" or "sarcotesta." Per the article, an "aril" is a botanical structure different from that found in a pomegranate.

I would want to do some digging for further corroboration from other sources before I start going around announcing "pomegranates don't have arils!" Plus, if I say "pomegranate aril" and you know what I'm talking about, then for our casual, non-scientific purposes, the language has done its job. I'm not gonna go policing anyone's pomegranate language uninvited.

But for now, I'll stick with calling them seeds.

Accurate Botanical Nomenclature: Pomegranate and the ‘Aril’ Misconception - PMC
The pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) attracts attention in studies for its nutritional and medicinal properties. However, a recurring issue in the literature arises due to the multidisciplinary nature of these studies, leading to a mistaken…