So for some or other reason I landed up looking at Padma Lakshmi’s Instagram page. Don’t ask me why, as I have never really been a follower of hers, there has never been that appeal. Don’t get me wrong she has a killer figure and amazing fashion sense. Yes I see her in the headlines and I have read her book, but I won’t go directly to her page to look for a recipe.

Lord only knows how far off the grid I have been living. I didn’t even know she could cook. I discovered this shocking revelation during lockdown.

Anyway there I was looking at something on her page and I came across her IGTV section and the toast video caught my attention, not the recipe itself but the fact that her toaster was on a sliding draw that she immediately slid back into the draw after the toast popped. My first thought was, your toaster is going to give off heat and create sweat in the drawer thus warping your counter….Geez, how much do I sound like my mother, she always uses that line on me, when I don’t let the toaster cool off.

Then my second thought was like, isn’t she going to shake the crumbs out of the toaster. Doesn’t she know how hard it is to get those crumbs off the bottom once it has cooled and gets stuck to the bottom???

Then and only after those thoughts did I see the end result  and well it looked amazing and delicious and it also seemed super easy to make.

The only problematic part was that she used fresh pomegranate seeds, I don’t have access to that here, so I had to get my hands on the tubs of seeds Woolies sell. Let me just tell you, I always see these tubs every time I go to the store and I just bypass it, without evening giving it a second glance.

So, when I needed to get my hands on these tubs for this particular recipe, I thought it would be a walk in the park, just breeze into the store, grab a tub, and breeze out of the store. WRONG, the store was sold out!!! I had to wait two whole weeks for Woolworths to restock them. Times like these I really hate the inconvenience that Covid has caused.

When I presented the pomegranate toast idea to my mother, she was far from enthusiastic. I had to literally bribe her to allow me to make this for our lunch and then plead with her to eat it. Once the plate was placed in front of her, she acted like those screaming toddlers that are stuck in a high chair at Wimpy, she brought back memories of those days. That look they have, when they first look at the plate, then they touch the food and then they look up at you, with that look of do you expect me to eat this look. My mother loves peanut butter and jam, so she would obviously love peanut butter and pomegranate seeds…. Right.. wrong.

After her first bite, I immediately tackled her about her verdict. She would not put me out of misery, she kept me guessing, the suspense was killing me. She made me wait till she was finished both slices of toast and had finished half her tea before she put me out of my agony and gave me her verdict.

I already knew the answer, because after every bite she kept mumbling that there was a seed stuck. What can I say, I am her daughter after all and I know her well enough by now.

Her verdict… drum roll… was that the bread was lovely and crisp and this combination of peanut butter and pomegranate seeds never in her wildness dreams would have crossed her mind, she was glad she had tried it out. But if I had to make it again she would not eat it.

Talk about shooting down a recipe that was made by the Top Chef host. I myself didn’t think it was that bad, the crunch of the seeds took getting used to and everything was red afterwards. I am still confused as to why anyone would want to eat a pomegranate seed. They are tasteless. My late Uncle Rags would buy pomegranates by the kilo when they in season and being sold opposite his house. I never knew the appeal and I hate to break it to you. I still don’t know the appeal. Oh well, maybe someday someone will tell me why they eat these seeds and like them.

What you will need to make this recipe:

• Toast
• Pomegranate seeds
• Smooth peanut butter

Method:

• Generously spread the peanut butter over the toast.
• Use as much of the seeds as possible to cover the peanut butter part of the toast.