I have a bit of a family history of heart and vascular disease, so citrus season is a really good opportunity to change my risk level. There’s some good science supporting the idea that the bioflavinoids in citrus fruit strongly help prevent heart attacks, and there’s also evidence that the pectin in the pulp in grapefruit is extra good.
And I quite like the bitterness of grapefruit. I have a theory that bitter tastes are often acquired tastes, because bitter foods are usually either medicinal or poisonous. So natural selection would favour tasters who were very tentative and cautious at first, but if there were no adverse effects, decided they really liked the flavour.
We’re just starting to pick pink grapefruit, and they’re sweet and juicy with just an edge of interesting marmelaide-y bitterness. But if grapefruit don’t do it for you, you might like to try the same idea with tangelos.
The Recipe:
Chop a grapefruit into quarters and peel. Use a paring knife to remove the pith from the core – the white pith is the very bitter bit, and though it is very good for you, too much of it is overpowering.
Melt a teaspoon of butter in a pan. Add
- a teaspoon of honey
- 2 dates, chopped
- 6 macadamia nuts, roughly chopped. (Fresh macas in shell in season are a different thing to the stale old things you buy in packets. A macadamia cracker is a great piece of kitchen equipment.)
- a big dessertspoon of rolled oats
- a big teaspoon of sunflower seeds
- half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
Break the grapefruit into its segments and add to the pan. Gently cook for a few minutes, turning the grapefruit segments once and stirring gently, until the macas and the grapefruit just start to colour.
Scrape out into a bowl. Put one grapefruit segment back and squash it to release the juice and deglaze the pan.
Serve warm topped with greek yoghurt.
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