Here's What To Do With Unripe Pomegranates

As a Certified Health Coach I get many questions about pomegranates. One of the most common is, what to do with unripe pomegranates?

Unripe pomegranates can be used in many food dishes, drinks and recipes. Unripe pomegranates can be used to produce pomegranate juice, fruit salads, smoothies, baked dishes and added to other food.

This article will tell you everything you can do with unripe pomegranates. Therefore, if you have purchased some unripe pomegranates, I recommend you keep reading for everything you need to know.

Eating Unripe Pomegranate

It happens to everyone, sometimes while shopping we’re in a rush and don’t fully inspect all the products taken off the shelf. It’s happened to me. I’ll buy some pomegranates and bring them home to find they’re unripe. Let’s take a look at whether or not you can consume those unripe pomegranates.

Unripe pomegranates will have a high acid count and how high depends on how ripe or unripe the fruit is. In most cases, you can eat pomegranate not fully ripe yet. However, if the pomegranate is still fully green, then eating it is not the best idea ((Pomegranates: FAQ)).

If you are buying your pomegranate from a store, then I doubt any shop will have unripe pomegranates to the extent they’re inedible. That’s because pomegranates do not ripen after being picked ((Michigan State University: All fruit and vegetables are not created equal when it comes to proper storage conditions)).

That being said, you might just be unlucky when you buy an unripe pomegranate but the chances of them being inedible are highly unlikely.

Ripening a Pomegranate

If you have had the misfortune of buying pomegranates that are not fully ripe, you might be wondering if you can ripen them yourself.

Pomegranates do not ripen after they have been harvested because they are a non-climacteric fruit. Once the pomegranate has been picked from its stem, it will stay as it is until it eventually goes bad.

This is why it’s so important for you to inspect any fruit you want to buy from the store. It will lessen the chances of you buying unripe fruit.

Side Note: “Non-climacteric” just means any fruit that needs to be attached to its tree or bush to reach full maturity ((UCDAVIS: Pomegranate storage temperature)).

What To Do With Unripe Pomegranates

Now it’s time to get into the meat of this article. If your pomegranates are unripe, there are still many things you can do with them. In this section, we’re going to take a look at a few things you can do with your unripe pomegranates.

Make Pomegranate Jam

Pomegranate jam is one of the best jams you can eat. Put the jam on toast and the flavors you get are incredible. The texture is what really stands out for me when it comes to pomegranate jam.

Make Pomegranate Juice

As I mentioned earlier, a grocery store will not really sell you unripe pomegranates to a certain extent. In fact, you should be able to use the pomegranate for most things, and one of the best is making pomegranate juice. It will be healthy, refreshing, and overall, good for you.

I don’t recommend this but one thing people do when making pomegranate juice is adding sugar. It makes it taste better and gets rid of some of the bitter taste you might get from eating unripe pomegranates. If you’re familiar with my philosophy, there’s no health benefit to added sugar.

Basically, I think making juice is the best thing to do because pomegranate juice is healthy, tastes great (even without sugar) and is a good refreshing drink for hot days. I also add it to my smoothies.

For store bought juice, POM is my favorite brand and it’s 100% pomegranate juice.

Pomegranate juice from pomegranate fruit. — Pomegranate juice from pomegranate fruit

Use It In A Fruit Salad

When your pomegranates are unripe, a great thing you could do with them is to make a fruit salad. Typically, many people use a variety of fruits that go well together. Most people throw in any fruit they can find around the house.

When you take unripe pomegranates and make them into a fruit salad, you would mask any bitterness you would have if you ate the pomegranate alone.

One of the best ways to make fruit salad is to use cranberry as the juice. When you add cranberry juice to a fruit salad, you enhance the flavor and most importantly, you make the fruit salad refreshing.

It might be tempting to think you could make pomegranate juice and add it to the fruit salad instead of cranberry juice. That’s perfectly fine as long as you understand it may make the salad a little bitter but so is cranberry juice if it’s unsweetened.

Add The Pomegranate To A Smoothie

If you have a blender at home, you could make a pomegranate smoothie. I make them all the time and add some strawberries and blueberries.

Fruit smoothies are a staple for many people who workout or make fitness a part of their lifestyle. Smoothies are a quick On-The-Go snack and healthy meal. To boost the protein, I’ll add some organic plant based protein powder, natural peanut butter or tofu.

Bake With Unripe Pomegranates

Let’s take a look at some of the things you can bake with pomegranates, specifically when they’re not yet ripe.

Pomegranate muffins: If you bake muffins, why not add pomegranate to a batch? You’ll have a healthy and great tasting breakfast muffin for those mornings where you need an on-the-go breakfast.
Pomegranate pie: If you have a few unripe pomegranates, you do not want to waste, make a pomegranate pie instead of an apple pie. It’s the same concept and same cooking/baking methods.

make pie with unripe pomegranates — A pie with unripe pomegranates

As you can see, there’s no limit as to what you can do with pomegranates, especially unripe ones. In addition, you can cook with them. There are many cultures that use fruits to add flavor to their dishes.

If you have any questions to ask me about this article don’t hesitate to comment below or email us. You can find an email on our contact page.

Here’s What To Do With Unripe Pomegranates