Tangelo Breakfast Compote

It’s citrus season, our tangelo tree is loaded, and I have a new favourite breakfast.  There’s a fast morning version that I can make  in the time it takes the coffee pot to perk, and a slow morning version that is decadent enough to get me out of bed on a cold Sunday morning.

Tangelos are a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine, but they’re much sweeter than a grapefruit  with a honey flavour and a very tiny edge of grapefruit bitterness. They’re easy to peel but almost too juicy to eat straight unless you are in the bath.

Citrus fruits in general are good sources of Vitamins C and A, and folic acid and potassium.  But it’s the “bioflavanoids” that make them interesting, and it’s the pulp, not the juice that contains most of the flavanoids. They have lots of good health effects including antioxidant, anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory effects, they help the body take up the Vitamin C in the juice, and they also  improve capillary health. So they help with with all the things that depend on good capillaries like eyesight and kidneys, and also bruising, varicose veins, and fragile capillaries – which I like because I’d rather eat tangelos than get laser surgery to deal with my spider veins any day!

The Recipe

In a heavy pan, melt half a teaspoon of butter and half a teaspoon of honey and add three desertspoons of muesli.  (In the slow morning version, instead of muesli I use freshly cracked pecans and macadamia nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, oats and organic sultanas.)

Toast for just a minute or two, then peel and segment two tangelos over the pan so that the juice falls into it.  Cook for just a minute or two longer till the juice goes syrupy.

Serve with a dollop of plain low fat yoghurt.