How to Use Orange Peels

Some of my earlier posts describe how to dry mandarin peels and various recipes for using them. Orange (and other citrus) peels are equally delicious, and good for your digestion and health. So in this post I provide a few different recipes for making the most of your orange peels.

First of all, peel your oranges using a vegetable peeler so that you get a nice thin peel without the thick white pith.

Dry the peels using a dehydrator or other method of choice – see earlier post for options.

To optimise storage, keep the larger pieces of peel in a glass jar until ready to use them. Use a spice grinder to give the size of pieces as desired.

Citrus Salt

Regular table salt is just sodium chloride and doesn’t have any of the other minerals that are important for our health. Make sure you use sea salt or rock salt (like Himalayan pink salt) for the healthiest choice. Citrus peels are great for immunity and digestion. Add them to your salt and use it to replace plain salt in any savoury dish.

2 tbsp Himalayan Pink Salt
1/4 cup ground orange peel
1 tsp black pepper

Mix together in a jar. Pour into a salt shaker and use as you ordinarily would.

Citrus Mixed Herbs

I now add orange peel to my standard mixed herb blend to zing up the flavour and of course add more health benefits on top of using the herbs themselves. You can’t lose!

You can use whatever combination of herbs you have or that you like. My current blend uses equal quantities of:

Rosemary
Sage
Parsley
Lemon Thyme
Basil
Orange Peel

Mix all together in a jar.

Lady Grey Tea

Lady Grey Tea is a lighter, fruitier version of Earl Grey tea that often has less bergamot flavour and includes orange and lemon peels and often floral petals such as blue cornflower. This is a firm favourite that I always have in my pantry.

I buy my earl grey tea from Kerikeri Tea (an organic and fair trade tea company in NZ) and then add peels and petals from my garden. Of course it is possible to simply buy Darjeeling tea and add your own bergamot but I found that difficult to source as food grade.

10 tbsp Earl Grey Tea (bergamot-infused Darjeeling tea)
2 tbsp dried orange peel
2 tbsp dried lemon peel
2 tbsp dried blue cornflower petals
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional*)

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and transfer to a jar or tea caddy. I like using a glass jar (I re-purpose maccona coffee jars) so that I can see the gorgeous colours and seal in the aroma. It makes it a full sensory experience to enjoy when you make your tea.

* Adding some vanilla essence or ground vanilla pod helps meld the flavours together. If using vanilla essence, make sure you shake the tea container regularly for a few days to mix it well through the tea.