Citrus fruits health benefits and a spicy Thai pomelo salad recipe for food enthusiasts

Personally I am not in favor of citrus fruits but they are said to be an abundant source of great number of nutrients, aside being just a source of vitamin C.

There are a whole plethora of citrus fruits and their less known exotic relatives, and they all carry great benefits such as preventing serious diseases like the stroke, hearth disease, kidney stones, bone issues, dehydration and can even effect the duration of common cold. They are rich in fiber which helps digestion and they can help your skin maintain the amount of the collagen and thus so keep it healthy, elastic and firm.

Besides all known oranges, pomelo, lemons , grapefruit and limes there are more of the citrus family that you may never heard off.

For example the finger limes are not actually the limes, they appear like a citrus caviar and allegedly taste like a mixture of herbs, lime and grapefruit. They are usually used for garnishes and served refrigerated.

Kumquats are said to be inside out citrus fruit. Their juice is sour and peel is sweet. Their thin slices can be peeled for the marmalade, or you can squeeze juice out and eat the rest. Quite interesting.

Ugli Fruit is a citrus grown on Jamaica, it is very ugly externally but incredible sweet and can be quite fitting substitute for oranges and tangerines.

Buddha’s Hand is a citrus that looks like a decoration or anything but a fruit. It has no sweet interior, but only peel that is usually candied, sliced and used as a decoration.

One of the interesting recipes I have found with for example a pomelo, was spicy Thai pomelo salad which is super easy to make.

Image source

The taste of this mixture is hot, sour, salty, and sweet and it is made like this.

You will need wok, small saucepan, blender and skillet. Most of it is prepared almost dried and the whole cooking process lasts around 40 minutes.

You will need to prepare dressing.

1 small dried chili
1/2 small onion minced
1 minced clove garlic
2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp tamarind concentrate
2 tsp vegan fish sauce
1 tbsp virgin coconut oil

Blend roasted red chili with onions, garlic to get smooth paste.
Add palm sugar, lime juice, tamarind pulp, and vegan fish sauce and simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool down.

Now prepare salad:

3 sliced large shallots
2 sliced cloves garlic
3 tbsp unsalted peanuts
4 tbsp unsweetened desiccated coconut
½ pomelo

Fry shallots and garlic until crispy, set aside.
Dry fry coconut in skillet 2 minutes, set aside.
Dry roast peanuts, cool, chop them in fine pieces, set aside.

Mix pomelo flesh ( only!) with the minced fresh chili, peanuts, coconut, half of the fried spring onion and garlic, so add almost everything that you prepared so far. Add just enough dressing to coat the salad.

When all is well mixed, add the rest of onions and garlic, and served the dish.

For decoration you can add 1/2 fresh minced chili and 1 tsp chopped fresh coriander leaves.

I believe this recipe deserves a try.

Cover image attribution Pixabay