Bashing the seeds from a juicy pomegranate can be messy. Half the craic is redecorating your kitchen walls.
You could always slice the pomegranate into quarters like the sensible Yotam Ottolenghi, and peel the rind under water in your kitchen sink. The undesirable white pith floats to the top and the ruby red seeds will sink to the bottom.
Each scarlet seed holds an abundance of anthocyanins. Why should you care? Anthocyanins have attracted attention in medical circles because of their ability to help quench free radicals, thereby interrupting the cycle of inflammation in the body. Up to 70% of an average GP’s waiting room involves inflammation of one form or another (e.g. acne, asthma, psoriasis, arthritis, haemorrhoids, cancers). While munching on pomegranate seeds is not going to clear the waiting room, these salubrious seeds are certainly your ally in the battle towards better health.
You’ll also get a nice dose of vitamin C to reboot your immune system and amp up your front line defences. Vitamins B5 and B6 will help night time snoozage. Here’s why. Tight deadlines, walking on dog poop and watching Nidge on LoveHate can eat up our reserves of B5. This important vitamin is used to make stress hormones to help the body’s coping mechanism. Our requirement of B5 takes on added importance when our nerves begin to sizzle. Increased stress levels during the day will encourage our body to drink up banks of B5 and B6 resulting in a deficiency at night. Vitamin B6 seems crucial for the production of our brain’s sleepy hormone melatonin. No B6? No zeds.
The good news? Pom seeds are dead easy to use in the kitchen. Sprinkle over salads, roast veg, porridge or yoghurt.
For this spiced chocolate mousse, we use avocado in place of dairy (our one-a-day, tick!) Folate in avocados is thought to boost histamine production, apparently necessary for optimal orgasms.
Its sumptuous flesh is probably enough to dizzy the senses. In fact, Catholics weren’t allowed to eat avocados when the Spanish conquistadors brought them back to Europe in the 16th century. They evoked pleasures of the flesh at a time when contraception was not available. And the Aztec people of South America – the same cunning chaps who invented hot chocolate – called the avocado plant the Ahuacatl. This translates as testicle tree.
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup
2 ripe avocados
2 teaspoons of tamari (a wheat-free soya sauce)
6 tablespoons cocoa or cacao powder
2 tablespoons cashew, hazelnut or macadamia butter
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (for heat, not sting)
1 teaspoon ginger juice (or ¼ teaspoon dried ginger)
Seeds from 1/4 pomegranate
Coconut yoghurt like natural CoYo to crown (try Greek yoghurt if dairy not a problem)
Pulse all your ingredients together with a hand-held blender. It’s best chilled for 30 minutes before wolfing, but excitement may over-ride your sensibilities. No shame in that.
We dish this mousse into IKEA glass tumblers and top with the coconut milk yoghurt and pomegranate seeds. It’s unreasonably tasty after a long day at work. You’ll quickly feel the chilli and ginger pelt through your veins and service those indolent brain cells.
