Late winter through to early spring sees the arrival of blood orange season when this exquisite fruit appears in farmer’s markets and supermarket aisles. We’ve put together a collection of recipes showcasing the best ways to use blood oranges in your cooking, from elegant salads to tarts and cakes, making the most of its bold citrus flavour and stunning crimson colour.
Sweet recipes
Jamie Oliver’s Honey Orange Traycake
This simple traybake is infused with honey and orange and finished with slices of blood orange to really make the most of those stunning ruby hues.
Pretty-In-Pink Blood Orange Bundt with Blood Orange Glaze
This picture-perfect Bundt is a love letter to blood orange, with the citrus fruit incorporated into the batter, syrup and glaze, which gets its pretty pink colour from the red blood orange juice.
Blood Orange Seed Cake
This super simple loaf is a twist on a citrus drizzle with candied peel and caraway seeds adding intrigue to the batter.
Nigella Lawson’s Blood Orange and Passionfruit Pavlova
A celebration of winter fruits, this blood orange and passion fruit pavlova from Nigella Lawson’s Cook, Eat, Repeat combines light, chewy meringue, softly whipped cream, and tangy fruit.
Orange Polenta Cake
It might look impressive, but this orange polenta cake recipe from Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients Quick & Easy Food is incredibly easy to make. It also happens to be gluten-free and packed with the tangy flavour of blood orange.
Blood Orange and Olive Oil Cake with Almonds
A simple and flavourful bake that’s free of both dairy and gluten, this blood orange cake with olive oil and almonds from The New Vegetarian by Alice Hart makes a spectacular dessert or afternoon treat.
Blood Orange Tart
If you want to go all out and bake something really extravagant, try your hand at this beautiful blood orange tart from Richard Bertinet’s Patisserie Maison. A sweet pastry shell filled with zingy orange curd and topped with caramelised slices of blood orange, it’s a truly celestial dessert.
Savoury
Blood Orange Piri Piri Chicken
Abel & Cole’s cookbook How to Eat Brilliantly Every Day is all about celebrating the seasonality of ingredients, and their blood orange piri piri recipe pays well-deserved homage to the blood orange. Its bright citrus flavour lends a welcome freshness to the smoky piri piri sauce, creating a well-balanced dish that makes a lovely warming recipe for a winter weeknight.
Ottolenghi’s Burrata with Blood Orange, Coriander Seeds and Lavender Oil
This recipe from NOPI by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully is an understated masterpiece, famously served at their Soho restaurant. Not only is it beautifully presented, it hits all the right notes with the fresh citrus cutting through the creamy burrata, and the coriander and lavender adding a complex depth of flavour.
Chicken Salad with Blood Orange and Giant Couscous
The combination of savoury chicken and couscous with tart blood orange in this recipe from The Recipe Wheel creates a bright, fresh dish that works particularly well as a light lunch. It is also a fantastic way to use up leftover chicken.
Fennel, Mint and Orange Salad
In his beautiful cookbook Venice: Four Seasons of Home Cooking, Russell Norman notes that it’s best to use blood oranges when in season for his fennel, mint, and orange salad. This salad would make a refreshing side dish to accompany a rich meat or pasta dish.
