How To Eat Citrus: Roasting Slices

Next time you’re roasting veg or meat in your oven, throw in a sliced lemon or two.  You’ll be amazed at what heat and some good quality olive oil will produce.

One way to enjoy citrus fruits is to roast them in olive oil, sprinkled with good sea salt.  You can slice them very thinly, leaving the peel on, and roast citrus along with whatever vegetables you are cooking in the oven. Roast more than you need for one meal and save the rest for later.  Once your roasted citrus slices are cool, put them in a glass container and keep them in the fridge.

These roasted citrus slices are excellent additions to Moroccan tagine, vegetable cous cous, rice pilafs and quinoi dishes.  You can dice some up with shallots and add to home made salad dressings and marinades for beef, duck, chicken and pork.  Add some roasted tangerine slices to beef and scallions  with some hoisin or plum sauce.  There are a lot of uses for roasted citrus.

Roasting changes the flavor profile, adding depth and taking away some of the acidity.  You’ll find the flavor milder, yet more concentrated.   I like using orange, Meyer lemons and blood oranges. I imagine kumquats might be good too.  The more sugar in the fruit, the more care you have to take not to burn it.  Oranges will burn faster than lemons.