CITRUS
I know its winter because the citrus trees in my
neighbourhood are laden with fruit. The citrus fruit family has
something for everyone, whether it be the sweet and juicy orange, the
cute and easy to peel mandarin, the gorgeously fragrant lime, the cook’s
favourite lemon or bittersweet grapefruit. Then there are the more
exotic citrus fruits such as the gigantic pomello (aptly named citrus
maxima), the oh-so-hip Japanese yuzu or the gorgeous pot plant and
preserve favourite, cumquat. There really is a citrus fruit for
everybody but the whole citrus family shares the qualities of intensely
exhilarating refreshment and beautifully bright colours.
Citrus is famous for its fresh zing, both in your mouth and in
the air around you when you peel them. For cooks, their sour astringency
makes them ideal to partner with creamy or fatty foods as they ‘slice
through’ the richness for an altogether more satisfying taste sensation.
This is used to great effect in Asian savoury dishes, in the famous
French dish duck a l’orange and my grandma’s specialty lemon butter (or
lemon curd). Citrus zest packs amazing flavour. Use a microplane or
zester and add zest to baking, sauces and anything with a citrus
ingredient to turn up the citrus flavour volume to the max. The sourer
the citrus, the better they balance with sweetness, so lemon and lime
cakes taste divine and lemon curd is sunshine and happiness on a spoon.
Citrus
are also perfect for juicing but limit to small amounts and eat mostly
whole fruit to preserve all their nutritional goodness and fibre. If you
only drink citrus you juice yourself this puts a natural brake on your
intake. And once you’ve experienced the joy of freshly squeezed, it’s
hard to go back.
Citrus fruits are a powerhouse of
nutrition. They are perhaps best known for their vitamin C content,
however this is only part of their good news story. They are packed with
natural phytochemicals with a laundry list of health benefits including
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. All this and
they are also low GI.
Source: AusFoods, 2019
Nicole Senior is an Accredited Practising
Dietitian, author, consultant, cook and food enthusiast who strives to
make sense of nutrition science and delights in making healthy food
delicious.
Contact: You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or check out her website.
