citrus sunshine 🍊🍋
plus: a new podcast episode about meatballs
Monday, January 27, 2025
Good morning!
I adore this painter (Jeremy Miranda) and this is also delightfully on theme.
How Dubai Chocolate Took Over the World [NYT, unlocked]
Every year, right when I think I’m never going to feel warm again, I get really obsessed with citrus. Lime in my seltzer. Freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice. Grapefruit gin-and-tonics. Sometimes we “float” a little blood orange juice on top, and watch as the colors marble together. I’ve made lemon bars on repeat (a refresh of my 2008 recipe is on its way) and a new pastry-perfect lemon tart (coming very soon) and I can already tell you it’s going to be a lemon spaghetti night. I intellectually understand that citrus ≠ summer warmth but my body, my heart doesn’t agree. Below, a few of my favorite citrus-centric and citrus-adjacent Smitten Kitchen recipes. I hope it helps get you through, too.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers in the depths of winter? I thought you’d never ask! Try the ginger garlic chicken noodle soup, charred salt and vinegar cabbage, creamy coconut rice with chili-lime vegetables, and oven-braised beef with harissa. To finish, I recommend the oatmeal date shortbread, the chocolate dulce puddle cakes, and/or the white Russian slush punch. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
“One of the winning elements of ‘The Recipe’ is that it’s not prescriptive — rather than settling on one universal ‘perfect’ recipe, the chefs explain their personal preferences, then give listeners the information they need to make their own adjustments. By breaking their recipes down ingredient-by-ingredient, digging into what each one is doing, they make the science of cooking approachable and fun.” — New York Times, 7 Podcasts to Inspire a New Hobby
“J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman’s new podcast gets to not only the heart of how they make their recipes—but also the why behind each decision, too.” — Esquire, The 26 Best Podcasts of 2024
The latest full episode of my podcast with J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, is all about Meatballs! You can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, and more. A few weeks ago, we ran an excerpt of the new special audiobook edition of Smitten Kitchen Keepers, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: A Kitchen Counter Conversation. You can listen to it here.
mixed citrus salad with feta and mint
Just when I'm convinced it's going to be all bleak and wintry from here on out, better citrus arrives and everything is a little more luminous again. Here's a favorite salad -- I love it with or for breakfast, and it's pretty stunning with dinner too.
crispy broccoli with lemon and garlic
Crispy charred broccoli is a top ten food for us; half the tray rarely makes it to the dinner table. Try one of the suggested riffs (crispy egg and crunchy crumbs! burrata sandwich smash! fish sauce vinaigrette!) and you too can unleash your inner broccoli junkie.
cabbage and lime salad with roasted peanuts
Halfway between a salad and slaw, a mix of cabbage, spinach, roasted peanuts, and lime juice dressing make a very pretty, very tasty salad that goes with anything. Or, you know, just a fork and a bowl.
simplest spaghetti al limone
The simplest way to make spaghetti al limone is also my favorite, enlisting an uncooked sauce, but no cream, butter, or other clutter. It's sunny and triumphant, a delicious way to end a long day.
lemon chicken with potatoes and chickpeas
A one-pan lemon chicken with potatoes and chickpeas perfect for busy times, or perhaps four times in a single month, if you're us. The chicken thighs are bronzed and crisp; the roasted potatoes and chickpeas infuse with the lemony onion and garlic drippings. It's perfect. [Video below!]
lamb meatballs with feta and lemon
A thing I love: Meatballs untethered from spaghetti. These Greek-inspired meatballs (lemon, feta, olives, and oregano). I like them best with lemon potatoes, or homemade pitas, or even a simple Greek salad.
caramelized brown sugar oranges with yogurt
Fragrant oranges, lightly caramelized, chilled in their syrup, spooned over yogurt and finished with mint for the breakfast/light dessert that feels very late winter to me — still cold but more sun and warmth ahead.
whole lemon tart
This is my favorite lemon tart. There's no zesting or juicing or orchard worth of lemons required, just one single one that you grind, skin and all, with butter and sugar and eggs into the most gloriously bright and balanced dream of a dessert.
grapefruit yogurt cake
Why do baked goods so often celebrate lemon, orange, or lime, but rarely grapefruit? This 2007 cake felt defiant at the time, but remains a beloved January fixture in my kitchen, perfectly crumbed and not too sweet with a ruby red glow.
lemon yogurt anything cake
A recipe for a lemon yogurt loaf cake that can be made any which way, but studded with tiny blueberries is my favorite. The recipe is one-bowl with few fiddly steps but the cake remains as gently sweet and moist and almost pudding-y in texture.
blood orange, almond and ricotta cake
A cake so rich and tender, you might forget that it's gluten-free, and so sunny and bright, you might forget that the air outside is so cold it hurts your face. Or, at least forgive it for the duration of your next cake break.
lemon ricotta pancakes with sautéed apples
Lemony, light and ever-so-crisp at the edges, these ricotta pancakes are finished with sauéed apples and I can hardly express how little I’d mind if someone came over and made them for me right now.
pomegranate grapefruit paloma
Fizzy, dark pink and tart-sweet, all with a proper kick of tequila, this is a very good festive-feeling winter-but-dreaming-of-warmer-days drink.
lemon chicken with potatoes and chickpeas
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most — yes, including the the Smitten Kitchen x Staub Braiser (currently out of stock but we’ll have more in soon!). For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
