How To Use Oranges To Make 2 Antioxidant-Packed Holiday Sides

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This winter/holiday season isn't the most festive most of us have ever experienced in our lifetimes, for reasons too obvious and depressing to get into. However, there is one silver lining to having arrived at this time of year, and it's that citrus fruits are finally in season.

When you think of citrus, the classic orange likely pops to mind first, followed by lemons and lime, or maybe a grapefruit, depending on that to which you are partial. But these popular fruits are only a few varieties of a wide spectrum of citrus which also includes tangerines, kumquats, mandarins, and a whole lot more. In two of the latest episodes of Well+Good's YouTube series Cook with Us, nutritionist Maya Feller, RD, uses clementines—a mandarin and sweet-orange hybrid that's often sold under the brand name Halo—to make one savory and one sweet side dish, both of which would be at home on any holiday table.


Experts In This Article

The first recipe Feller demos is for a cranberry citrus compote. If you're not familiar, a compote is just fruit (or fruits, in this case) preserved in syrup, which can be eaten as a dessert, a dessert (e.g. ice cream) topper, in place of jam on toast, or however you like. For this recipe, Feller uses the entire clementine, noting that the peel is fully edible and is, in fact, extremely antioxidant-rich. Personally, she likes to spread the nutrient-dense final result onto crusty sourdough topped with cheese, which yum. 

She takes a more savory approach to the second recipe, which is a citrus chutney. Chutneys are traditional to Indian cuisine and are typically used as either sauces or condiments, particularly in partnership with animal proteins and seafood but also mixed vegetables, too. Once again here, the rinds stay on to up the ante(oxidants), and they're combined with a host of other delicious and nutritious whole-food heroes, too.

To get a lot more detail on both dishes, watch each of the two full videos so that this year, you can leave the canned green bean casserole to your favorite auntie in favor of bringing something bright and fresh to the holiday table instead.

Get more healthy recipe ideas in Well+Good's Cook With Us Facebook group.

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