Know Your Food: Mandarin

The harbinger of winter with its charming scent, indispensable for our kitchen with its flavor. Mandarin is a fruit that we can use without wasting any part of it, from its peel to its seeds.

Let’s start peeling it!

The scent-emitting peel of mandarin can be used in many areas. 

1. You can grate the peel or grind it into powder. It can be used in cakes, muffins or pastries.
2. Place the peel directly into the olive oil, wait a few weeks. You will have an oil that will perfect the taste of your salads.
3. Make zest and use it with juicy meats and chickens
4. Cover thin peels with chocolate and freeze for later snack
5. Make tea by boiling the peels
6. Mix it with water, vinegar and salt to get a natural cleanser.

It’s time to eat!

Although it is not easy to pick mandarins from the bough and eat these days, we consume mandarin frequently. We can eat mandarin directly or use it in other ways. In green salads or fruit salads, mandarin will turn into an exquisite plate with both color and taste. With its freshly squeezed juice, it will help you start the day great. You can mix the remaining pulp with detox water and drink freshness throughout the day. You can also make ice cream or brew fruit tea with the leftover pulp. Instead of using milk in your cakes or muffins, you can add some of the liquid by adding mandarin juice.

Although we don’t like the seeds of mandarins, there is a place that loves it: the soil! Since the mandarin tree does not take up much space, you can easily grow it even in a corner of your home.

Adding the mandarin peels directly to your compost will not work well. For this reason, it would be better to leave it directly to the soil.

We should use the food that nature has given us to the fullest and we should not waste any of it. There are some small steps but we know there is more. More to a better future. Let’s take a small step towards a better future!

If you want to learn more about the citrus family, here is Know Your Food: Orange!