Kumquats are gorgeous little citrus fruits with a sweet rind and sour flesh. Think of them as bright flavored, miniature oranges. You can eat kumquats whole, rind and all. They add a lovely, fresh, sweet-sour pop to this baby spinach salad. If you dont like or dont have kumquats, just use orange segments (or similar citrus fruit) instead.

Staying with the citrus theme, I used an orange and sesame dressing for this salad. Using frozen orange juice concentrate is the secret here. The concentrate gives the dressing great flavor without watering it down (like regular orange juice would).

Fresh Baby Spinach and Kumquat Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing Recipe

serves 2

for salad
4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves, loosely packed
6-8  kumquats
6 small red onion rings
2-3 tablespoons toasted pecans (I didnt use pecans)

for dressing
4 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
salt and pepper

Wash and pat dry the spinach leaves. Wash and cut each kumquat into 3 or 4 rounds. Cut the red onion into thin rings. Assemble all ingredients for the salad in a serving dish.

Whisk together all ingredients for the dressing. Serve with spinach salad.

This recipe is a copycat version of the beet and orange dip at our local Wegmans grocery store. Wegmans don’t add walnuts to their dip. But I like the nutty, creamy muhammara-like flavor that the walnuts add to this dip. Its sweet, tart and great for dipping pita bread or in a vegetable crudite platter. I love the brilliant color of beets too. But if you don’t like beets, try this with carrots.

Dont throw away beet greens. They taste great chopped up and sauteed in some olive oil, garlic and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I love the delightful earthiness of roasted beets. They take about an hour in a 400 degree oven to get fork tender. If you are in a hurry, use drained, canned beets. Once the beets are roasted, all you do is puree them with some toasted walnuts, balsamic vinegar, orange juice and garlic.

I served this dip with carrot and celery sticks and toasted mini whole grain pita bread.

Here are some other ways to use this dip:

• Use as a sandwich spread
• Mix it into hummous for a gorgeous light pink colored dip
• Serve as a platter with vegetable crudites, melba toast, olives, crackers, apple wedges

Dont have walnuts? Try these beet dip recipes

• Beet dip with tahini from Lovely Morning
• Yogurt and beet dip from Shabak’s Kitchen
• Cream cheese beet dip from Vegetarian Times

I never eat marmalade on toast, it’s so boring! Marmalade exists for a higher purpose. Grill up some tofu with soy sauce and this marmalade. You can use this as a glaze on pretty much anything! Use it on pancakes.
Serve marmalade with brie and crackers Make an orange ginger cocktail, with some orange or pineapple juice, couple spoons of the marmalade and some rum. Or layer sponge cake with orange ginger marmalade and chocolate..heavenly!

Orange – 2 large
Water or Orange juice– 2 cups
Water – ¼th cup
Ginger root– 6 oz root
Sugar – 1 ½ cups
Fruit Pectin Powder – 3/4th of a 1.75 oz packet
Green Tea or Jasmine Tea – 1 tsp
Baking Soda – pinch
Lemon Juice – 1 tsp
Food coloring – 1 drop red, 3 drops yellow. Optional.

Zest the oranges, place zest a bowl. Then peel the skin and discard. Remove pith, seeds and any thick membrane. Squeeze the orange over the bowl and extract as much juice as you can. Chop up the remaining fruit and add to the bowl. You should have about 2 cups of orange juice, pulp and zest (from the 2 oranges).

Peel and grate the ginger. Squeeze the ginger juice out. Use between 2 tbsp to 1/4 th cup depending on how strong you want the ginger taste to be in the marmalade. I used 1/4th cup ginger juice because I love bold flavors. I also added a tbsp of finely chopped ginger pieces.

Place the ginger juice, orange zest, pulp and juice plus 2 cups of water or orange juice in a large heavy pan. Add the baking soda. Bring to a boil. Then reduce to medium-low and simmer 20 minutes.

In the meanwhile, boil 1/4th cup water. Add the green tea and turn off heat. Let it steep about 5 minutes. Strain and reserve the tea.

After 20 minutes of simmering, the orange and ginger should have thickened. Add the tea. You will have about 3 cups of liquid now.

To this add the fruit pectin. Bring to a rapid rolling boil, stirring often. Once the mixture is at a vigorous boil, add the sugar. Let it reach a rolling boil again. Stir constantly for another 2-3 minutes.

Turn off heat. Add the food coloring and lemon juice and stir. Leave to cool and then refrigerate. Alternatively, can the marmalade at this point.

You’ll notice in the photo that the marmalade is a bit runny. I only made this yesterday and the fruit pectin box says orange marmalade can take up to 2 weeks to set properly. I guess I’ll have to be patient!

Notes and Tips
Food coloring adds some depth to the marmalade’s color. But by all means leave it out, it will look great just by itself
I think orange zest adds a wonderful flavor and aroma to the marmalade, but it will add some bitterness too. So omit the zest if you don’t want that slight bitterness in the background.
If you want a stronger green tea flavor, leave the tea leaves in or steep longer
I love the ginger in this marmalade. The spiciness from the ginger hits the back of your throat. Add more or less ginger according to taste.
Low sugar pectin requires less sugar than normal pectin, so read the instructions on your fruit pectin box!