One of the things that made me reconsider a few times before writing about gluts of apples and pears a couple of years ago, was that they are not a terribly common backyard tree in Australia, being seen as high maintenance, and the climate in much of the country is unsuitable.

I decided to write about them anyway as you might go picking at a pick your own orchard, or stock up cheaply in season from a market, and also because there are parts of Europe and North America for example, where apple and pear trees are much more common.

Citrus on the other hand are found everywhere. A lemon is the classic backyard fruit tree across much of Australia, apart from the most tropical zones. I live in one of the very few cities in Australia where it is too cool for many types of citrus, and even here many people have a Meyer lemon or navel orange in a warm spot.

Along the warmer and milder east coast, almost every house seems to have a whole orchard of citrus, sometimes looking quite neglected, but still groaning with fruit! A couple of my parents’ trees (very much not neglected) are pictured above. I realise this is certainly not the case in many other parts of the world, but perhaps you can console yourselves with gluts of blueberries or raspberries – the very though of which makes me nearly faint with envy!

The recipes categorised below link to dishes I’ve made, most of them several times. Many are separate recipes on the blog, the others are recipes elsewhere online. In a couple of cases I have modifications or alternatives to give you further flexibility – these are listed below each recipe. At the very bottom, I have listed a range of interesting looking recipes that are on my ‘to do’ list, but that I haven’t yet tested. Most are from very reputable sites, but I can’t guarantee them all. As I try them, I’ll move to the appropriate categories above.

In all cases you can substitute navel or Valencia oranges for blood oranges, or clementines/mandarins, and I often do, as different citrus have different seasons. Given we’re talking about trying to use up gluts of whatever you have here, the same goes for substituting lemons and limes for each other and for blood limes, though obviously it will be a different flavour.

Mains and sides

Grapefruit chicken with couscous

Lime-glazed chicken drumsticks

Yotam Ottolenghi’s roasted chicken with clementines and arak

– I made this with blood oranges and Galliano.

Nigel Slater’s celeriac, blood orange and grapefruit salad 

Beetroot and blood orange salad

Salad with lentils, orange, beetroot, and feta (link for this salad is broken, I’ll try to recreate, but keeping this as a reminder)

– I added avocado, mint and parsley, and left out the walnuts.

Roasted beetroot with citrus, feta and walnuts

Avocado, grapefruit and spinach salad

Desserts 

Syrupy blood oranges

Moroccan citrus salad (pictured above)

Winter fruit compote

Baking

Blood lime, almond and coconut cake (pictured above)

Lemon and poppyseed drizzle cake

Blood orange, almond and ricotta cake

Lemon, almond, ricotta and polenta cake

Citrus olive oil muffins

Orange and nutmeg muffins

Marmalade biscuits with orange icing (pictured above)

Hannah’s orange cake

Four orange cake

Preserving

Blood lime marmalade

Blood orange and strawberry marmalade with rosemary

Rhubarb and grapefruit jam

Indian lime (or lemon) pickle

Lime, lemon or blood orange curd

Candied citrus peel

Blood orange (or lemon or lime) cordial (pictured above)

Not yet tried

Meyer lemon gelato

Meyer lemon ice cream

Honey rosemary grapefruit soda

Orange coconut smoothie

Meyer lemon sables

Spanish orange and almond tart

Orange, Seville marmalade and almond cake

Olive oil and blood orange cake

Blood orange cake with curd and mascarpone filling

Orange and pistachio pilaf

Grapefruit, radish, beetroot and chicory salad

Mixed citrus salad with feta and mint

Winter citrus salad with black pepper, feta and mint

Avocado grapefruit edamame salad

Watermelon, grapefruit and pickled radish salad

Fennel, grapefruit and blood orange salad

Citrus salt