As we head into February, we approach the peak of blood orange season, when this exquisite winter fruit is at its sweetest and juiciest. We've put together a collection of recipes showcasing the most delicious 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 colour.
Abel & Cole's cookbook How to Eat Brilliantly Every Day is all about celebrating the seasonality of ingredients, and their Blood Orange Piri Piri Chicken 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.
It might look impressive, but this gorgeous 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.
This recipe for Burrata with Blood Orange, Coriander Seeds and Lavender Oil from NOPI by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully is an understated masterpiece, famously served at their Soho restaurant that inspired the cookbook. Not only is it beautifully presented, it hits all the right notes with the fresh citrus cutting through the indulgent creamy burrata, with the coriander and lavender adding extra depth of flavour.
From the book
NOPI: The Cookbook
Over 120 recipes from Ottolenghi's celebrated Soho restaurant
Inspiring vegetable dishes
Sophisticated recipes made accessible for home cooks
A simple and flavourful bake that's free of both dairy and gluten, this Blood Orange and Olive Oil Cake with Almonds from The New Vegetarian by Alice Hart makes a spectacular dessert or afternoon treat.
The combination of the savoury flavours of chicken and couscous with the tart orange in Rosie Ramsden's Chicken Salad with Blood Orange and Giant Couscous from The Recipe Wheel creates a lovely fresh dish that works particularly well as a light lunch and is a fantastic way to use up leftovers.
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, which makes a lovely refreshing side salad to a rich meat or pasta dish.
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.
