Seed
To seed is to remove the seeds and pith from fruit and vegetables such as chilies, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and pomegranates.
Also called Seeded, Deseed, Deseeded.
To seed means to take the seeds out of a fruit or vegetable. British recipes usually say "deseed". Cooks seed food to remove bitterness, heat, a wet texture or hard bits you would not want to eat. It is different from pitting, which removes one large stone.
How to do it
- Bell peppers (peppers in the UK): cut around the stem and pull it out, or cut the pepper in half from top to bottom. Pull out the seed cluster and slice off the pale ribs with a paring knife.
- Chilies: cut them in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and the pale ribs with the tip of a knife or a small spoon. Wear gloves or wash your hands and the board well afterward, and do not touch your eyes.
- Tomatoes: cut them in quarters and scoop out the seeds and jelly with your finger or a spoon. This is part of making a concassé.
- Cucumbers: halve them lengthwise and run a teaspoon down the middle.
- Winter squash and melon: halve them and scrape out the seeds and strings with a large metal spoon.
- Pomegranates: cut the fruit in half across the middle, hold each half cut side down over a bowl, and tap the back firmly with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall out.
Why it works
Seeds and the tissue around them are often where the bitterness, water or heat sits. In chilies, most of the heat is in the pale ribs that hold the seeds, not in the seeds themselves, so removing the ribs matters most. In tomatoes and cucumbers, the seed area is mostly water, so seeding keeps salads and sauces from going thin.
Common mistakes
- Seeding a chili with bare hands and then rubbing your eyes. The burning can last a long time.
- Leaving the pale ribs in a bell pepper or chili. They are bitter in peppers and hot in chilies.
- Throwing out squash seeds. Rinse them, dry them, toss with oil and salt, and roast them at 160°C (325°F) until crisp.
- Seeding tomatoes for a long-simmered sauce, where the extra water cooks off anyway.
In recipes
"Seeded" and "deseeded" mean the seeds are out. Some rye bread recipes use "seeded" to mean the opposite: with seeds added. Read the context.
Recipes that use this technique
5 recipes from the sites we collect.
Related terms
- CoreTo core is to cut out the tough center of a fruit or vegetable, such as the seeds of an apple, the stem of a tomato or the heart of a cabbage.
- PitTo pit is to take the hard stone out of fruit such as cherries, olives, peaches, plums, dates and avocados, using a knife, a pitter or your fingers.
- ConcasséConcassé is tomato that has been peeled, seeded and cut into small, even dice, ready for sauces, salsas and garnishes with no skin or watery seeds.
- Bell pepperBell peppers are sweet, crisp peppers with no heat. They are called peppers in the UK, capsicum in Australia and India, and paprika in Sweden.
- Paring knifeA paring knife is a small knife with an 8 to 10 cm blade for peeling, trimming, coring and other detailed work. Here is how to use it safely.