Enjoying Winter Citrus

Orange…lemon…lime…grapefruit…tangelo…pomelo…and kumquats are some of the varieties of winter citrus that are in season at this time of year.  There are many recipes and ways to prepare them, and my favorite is to simply peel and eat it.  For other occasions I like to combine the different varieties together as a citrus salad or add it to mixed greens {winter citrus salad} or other fruits.  In this blog post, I want share some simple ways to enjoy them this winter.

Before I go any further, I want to thank Sherry Kain for being gracious and letting me do a little photo shoot out in your front yard.  The red bench covered with snow made for a beautiful setting to photograph my basket full of fresh citrus.  You can see more from our visit in the previous blog post, Winter Snow & Ice Skating.

There may have been seven varieties of citrus in the wire basket… a great time to indulge and maybe try some new varieties that are available. One of my favorite is cara cara oranges.  It looks like a regular orange, but once you peel away the outer layer, the flesh is pink-coral color and the flavor is sweet, less acidic than a regular orange.

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With a little preparation, a simple citrus fruit salad paired with banana slices is a delicious start to the morning.  This is great to make ahead the night before by segmenting oranges and grapefruits, and add the sliced bananas when you are ready to eat.

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The ingredients used in the salad were bananas, grapefruits, cara cara and navel oranges, and a little bit of lime zest for color.

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pink grapefruit halves

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Grace sprinkled a little bit of sugar on her grapefruit to sweeten it.  This was how I introduced my kids to grapefruit when they were little.  They loved it then and just as much now.

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The grapefruit halves were simple to prepare and delicious to eat.  All the grapefruit segment pieces were loosened with a knife from the membrane to make it easy to scoop out with a spoon.

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We have a little reading room at the front of the house that gets the morning sunlight. It’s always welcoming to see the warm sunshine streaming through the windows during these winter months.  Most days the sky will be cloud covered or filled with a thick layer of fog. The sun was out the morning I took these pictures and a little lazy morning breakfast on the sofa with a hot cup of coffee was needed.  In addition, I have these beautiful paperwhites to enjoy.  I planted them in November to bloom around Christmas time but they took longer than expected.  Still well worth the wait.  The inspiration to do this came from my friend, Judith at Bontanic Bleu.  You can see her blog post about paperwhites here and here.

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A gathering of my favorite things for breakfast.

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Fresh baked almond croissants, citrus salad, and a hot cup of coffee was my simple breakfast menu.

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Mixed citrus salad is a favorite of my family, we love to eat it anytime of day.  When I was preparing it, my kids couldn’t wait until I was done and a little bit of sampling was going on in the kitchen.  I combined pink grapefruits, oranges {navel, cara cara & mandarin} and lime zest for the salad and served it in a shallow bowl.  Again, the oranges and grapefruits were segmented or sliced into round pieces for a pretty presentation. This salad could be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

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Enjoy winter citrus at the start of your morning or any other time of day!

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Posted by Kay