Pomegranate Eton Mess

Pomegranates are back in season!

They really add a festive look to any dish and are just so delicious.

What is Eton mess?

Eton mess is a traditional English dessert, usually made during summer with strawberries or other type of berries. The berries are combined with whipped cream and crunchy meringues and topped with some berry sauce.

The name of the dessert drives from its origin at the Eton College. The word "mess" refer to the dish look or to define a quantity of food. The point is that this dessert doesn’t look very complicated. It's just a dollop of cream with fruits, crushed meringues and sauce but the combination is perfect and you will be looking for a spoon to dive in.

Since summer is over and in Israel, strawberries are more of a winter/spring fruit that you can't get any time of the year, I changed it to pomegranates.

I used store-bought pomegranate juice to create the sauce. If you don’t want to make a mess in your kitchen by removing the pomegranate seeds, you can also buy just the pomegranate seeds ready for use. Another option is to make pomegranate juice by blending the seeds and straining the juice if you prefer not to buy it. You can also make homemade meringues but I choose the shortcut of store-bought this time.

The meringues I bought are in the traditional shape they are sold in Israel as little piped cookies. They are called "kisses". You can also buy meringue shaped as nests, in any way you crush them and don’t serve them as they are.

So this recipe mainly requires assembling, no baking or something complicated.

This year all holiday meals are in the middle of the week and we have a row of holiday after holiday and then Shabbat and holiday and Shabbat again. Using shortcuts for dessert is the best thing you can do to reduce stress.

When using shortcuts for this dessert you can also prepare all parts of it in advance and just assemble it at the last minute.

I make the pomegranate sauce in advance and keep in the fridge. Then the only thing you need to do before assembling is whip the whipping cream and it takes literally 2 minutes. Finally, you mix the crushed meringues and pomegranate seeds with the whipped cream and drizzle the sauce on it.

This pomegranate Eton mess recipe creates a dairy dessert but it's very easy to make it parve (non-dairy) by switching the whipping cream to a non-dairy one. This pomegranate Eton mess dessert is gluten free one, for other gluten free recipes on my blog, check out my gluten free recipe index.

The little pomegranates seeds look like jewels and I like to garnish desserts with them when in season. And especially during the high holidays at the beginning of the year.

This pomegranate Eton mess dessert is easy to whip up and taste so good. The fluffy cream with crunchy meringues and little pomegranate seeds that are full of flavor is just so, so good. What else do you need to have a good start to the year?

In Sukkot, we have a lot of meals and guests usually, and this easy dessert pleases my family in the Sukkah when you just want a small sweet bite with a cup of tea or coffee.

Recipe yields 4-6 servings depend on the serving dish you use.

Here is the recipe for this yummy festive pomegranate Eton mess: