In the midst of cold weather cooking, when rich meats, stews, and casseroles reign supreme, a dose of bright citrus is a welcome reprieve. While we think of grapefruit as winter’s bright jewel, the cold season is also prime time for lemons and limes. After you’ve consulted our winter produce guide and purchased your fruits, it’s time to toss them with salads, bake them into cakes, or fire them on the grill to give your cocktail a hint of summer. Here are our favorite citrus recipes to make through the winter.
Adapted from Anna Watson Carl’s cookbook The Yellow Table, this salad is best made in the winter when blood oranges are readily available. Navel oranges make a good substitute in other seasons—either way, it’ll be the prettiest dish on the table. Get the recipe for Citrus Salad with Arugula & Ricotta Salata »Signe Birck
Blood oranges, which are available from December through April, serve as the basis for this refreshing mid-winter salad, a classic in Sicily. Get the recipe for Blood Orange and Onion Salad »Farideh Sadeghin
A bright, flavorful, and not too heavy winter salad combines some of the best cold-weather flavors—kale, orange, and pumpkin seeds—with sweet honey and airy ricotta. Get the recipe for Kale and Citrus Salad »
Smoky Grapefruit Gin and Tonic
Meant for long afternoons overlooking lakes, porches, and thick novels, gin and tonics are the balm of summer. Add a slice of salt-sprinkled grilled grapefruit, and cut the tonic with soda, and the highball grows not only more aromatically complex, but even more refreshing. Get the recipe for Smoky Grapefruit Gin and Tonic »Photography by Eric Medsker
Lemon Bars
Lemon bars are a light, brightly-flavored dessert, best served with a sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar. Get the recipe for Lemon BarsNoah Fecks
Rich dark rum is brushed over grapefruit halves, which are then sprinkled with sugar and cayenne pepper before broiling. Get the recipe for Rum-Broiled Grapefruit »Ingalls Photography
Butter Lettuce Salad with Pistachios and Orange Crème Fraîche Dressing
With its flaky, buttery crust and marmalade-like citrus filling, not a crumb of this sunny lemon pie will be left on the dessert board. Get the recipe for Shaker Lemon Pie »Andre Baranowski
Lemon Parmesan Dip
Creamy and bright-tasting, lemon parmesan dip makes for an excellent accompaniment to a chip or crudité platter. Get the recipe for Lemon Parmesan Dip »Helen Rosner
French Lemon Tart
The crust for this simple, jammy lemon tart is very flaky. If you have dough left over after rolling out the shell, use it to make a crisscross pattern over the top. Get the recipe for French Lemon Tart »Farideh Sadeghin
Lemon and salt—powerful on their own, but even better when combined and let mature into preserved lemons, a North African pantry staple. Get the recipe for Preserved Lemons »Romulo Yanes
Dry-Cured Olives with Rosemary and Orange
These olives are incredibly simple—all you have to do is mix them with orange zest and juice, rosemary, and pepper, then let them sit for an hour. Get the recipe for Dry-Cured Olives »Farideh Sadeghin
Temple-Orange Tart
Every part of the orange is used in this subtly sweet tart, including the zest, juice, and flesh. If temple oranges are not available, navel oranges or tangerines make excellent substitutions. Get the recipe for Temple-Orange Tart »Andre Baranowski
Chef Josita Hartanto of Berlin’s Lucky Leek mixes three marinated seaweeds with sweet caramelized mushrooms, steamed vinegary rice, and crisp toasted nori in this vegan rice bowl. All of the seaweeds used here can be found online so search them out, as they each contribute a different texture and taste to this salad. Get the recipe for Seaweed Salad with Orange and Macadamia Nuts »Matt Taylor-Gross
Wasakaka Sauce
Wasakaka is similar to Argentina’s chimichurri. With just four ingredients, wasakaka is one of the simplest Caribbean condiments there is, and it’s almost always served with roasted and grilled chicken. Get the recipe for Wasakaka Sauce »Matt Taylor-Gross
Lemon Meringue Tarts
“The single best gauge of a bakery’s quality is its lemon tart,” says tart expert Maury Rubin. “There’s a dance to balancing the sweet and tart flavors appropriately, and in a good bakery the filling will never taste buttery or eggy—it will taste like lemon.” This recipe, adapted from Rubin’s Book of Tarts and infused with lemon zest for extra citrusy flavor, is the ideal. Alternatively, lemon juice and zest can be swapped out for equal parts lime. Get the recipe for Lemon Meringue Tarts »Ryan Liebe
Orange and Ginger Brownie Cookies
These drops were born of fiddling with my favorite brownie recipe. A little more flour and chocolate, and a different way of baking, and presto chango, cookies. The orange and ginger are holiday add-ins. Adapted from Dorie’s Cookies. Get the recipe for Orange and Ginger Brownie Cookies »Christina Holmes
Smoked Lemon-Lime-Ade
This lemonade is rendered smoky-sweet with the juice of grilled lemons and limes and toasted simple syrup, which has a mild caramel flavor that does a lot to complement the grilled fruit. Get the recipe for Smoked Lemon-Lime-Ade »Eric Medsker
