3 Delicious Ways To Use Blood Oranges

Food editor Kristen Eppich shares tips on cooking with winter’s juiciest citrus fruit. 
Blood oranges are the jewel of the citrus family with their crimson interior and sweet hints of floral. They’re available from December to March each year, and there are so many ways to enjoy them during their short season. Aside from peeling them and eating them whole, here’s a few other things to do with them:

1. Segment Them: Because blood oranges are so special, they deserve a little extra attention. I think the best way to enjoy them is to strip away their fibrous parts leaving just the tender flesh.

To segment the orange (technically called supreming) start by trimming off the ends. Next place the orange on its end and slice away the peel. Finally, with the orange in your hand, over a bowl to catch the juice, slip a knife between the flesh of the orange and the connective membrane, separating out each segment and letting them fall into the bowl. The final touch is to squeeze all the remaining juice from the fibrous portion in your hand into the bowl with the segments.

Once supremed, they can be used any way you would use a regular orange. They’re great for salads, fruit salads, smoothie bowls, sauces and salsas. I love to top off a Belgian waffle with a dollop of yogurt and some blood oranges.

2. Blend Them: Feel like a blood orange coconut ‘creamsicle’ smoothie? Remove the peel from a blood orange and drop the flesh into a blender with 1 cup ice, ¼ cup coconut juice and 1 tbsp honey. Blend until smooth…tada!

3. Juice Them: Given the price, a glass of blood orange juice should be savored, not gulped. But aside from sipping the juice as is, try making it into an Italian soda. Make a simple syrup by boiling ½ cup water with ½ cup sugar in a small pot until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool. Fill a glass with ice, add 1 tbsp simple syrup, ¼ cup blood orange juice and top up with club soda.