Chrissy Teigen’s pro tip for seeding a pomegranate—without staining everything red

It’s common nutritional advice to “eat the rainbow,” but certain foods make wearing the rainbow an unwanted side-effect. (Shout out to anyone who’s ever Googled how to remove a turmeric stain.) Pomegranates are another problematic food in this regard.

Sure, the little red seeds are good for your skin and have also been linked to stimulating serotonin receptors (oh hello, mood boost). That said, they aren’t exactly the easiest to work with in the kitchen. All the more reason to bless Chrissy Teigen for sharing an easy seeding technique in her new book, Cravings: Hungry For More.

Somewhere between her recipe for avocado with toasted crumbs and go-to zucchini noodles dish is her tip for extracting pomegranate seeds—without turning everything around you red in the process. Here it is, in three easy steps, all straight from the book:

1. Fill a large bowl with cold water. Use a sharp knife to cut about halfway through the pomegranate, then split the pomegranate apart under water.

2. Then pull the seeds off the white stuff (called the pith). The seeds will sink to the bottom and most of the white stuff will float to the top.

3. Drain the water and floaty white bits from the bowl, then pick out any remaining white stuff from the seeds.

Doing it under water: total win—and just in time for all those seasonal fall salads that call for the seeds, too.

Since you’re already perfecting your cooking skills, here’s how to cut an onion without tearing up and the best way to cut an avocado.