Winter Citrus: A Field Guide
When the rest of the market goes grey, the citrus stall lights up. A short guide to eating the cold months brightly.
By Priya Anand · · 5 min read
Citrus is the great consolation of winter cooking. While everything else is roots and brassicas, the citrus stall offers blood oranges, bergamot, kumquats, and grapefruit in colours that have no business appearing in January.
Know your oranges
Blood oranges are the showpiece — sweet-tart with a berry edge and that startling crimson flesh. Navels are reliable and seedless. Cara caras sit between the two: pink, low-acid, almost floral.
For our bright citrus breakfast salad we mix all three over coconut yoghurt, because the contrast in colour and sharpness is half the pleasure.
Use the whole fruit
Zest before you juice, always — the oils in the peel carry more perfume than the juice does. A whole-orange cake like our olive oil and citrus loaf uses both, so nothing of that brightness is wasted.
And segment over a bowl. The juice that escapes is the best part of any citrus dish; catch it and spoon it back.
- winter
- citrus
- seasonal eating
