What do you do with your orange peels?
Eat your orange and then break the peel up into quarter sized pieces. Fresh orange peels are delicious in herb waters, add them to soups and stews or slow cook them with chicken or duck. Grate fresh orange peel into cookies and breads or add a zesty flavor to sweets and desserts.
After you have gotten your fill of fresh orange peel, let them sit out at room temperature on a screen until they are crispy. Once dried, store them in a jar in your spice cabinet. You now have a satisfying and revitalizing ingredient to use in your meal preparations throughout the year.
Orange peel not only adds a nice flavor to your food but it makes a very good tasting tea. Orange, tangerine and mandarin peel teas are traditionally used for coughs that are due to excessive phlegm in the lungs. It is a good tea to drink if you have lots of mucus, chronic chest congestion or a wet cough. Citrus peels are considered a valuable medicinal herb and are a popular ingredient in many Chinese Medicine tonics.
Citrus peels are loaded with vitamin C and pectin. Pectin, which is also abundant in apples, is a carbohydrate that feeds the beneficial bacterial in your gastrointestinal tract. Yes, your gut is full of creepy crawly bacteria.
You are a walking colony of bugs, an apartment complex for hundreds of different types of living organisms that can only be seen with a microscope. This beneficial micro flora, compliments the immune system, helps us digest nutrients and keeps pathogenic bacteria in check.
Our daily wellness and vitality is intricately connected to the health of our gut bugs. Feed your bugs. When you eat sugar ridden foods, you feed the bacteria that make you sick, when you eat orange peels; you feed the beneficial bacteria that keeps you healthy. Don’t throw away that orange peel…..
A delicious addition to winter meals, orange peels chase away mucus and ward off colds and flu with its antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. Orange peels also help with sluggish digestion and are effective for treating gas, bloating and nausea.
Most people throw away this part of their orange eating experience because they just aren’t aware of how beneficial the orange peels are.
It is natures give away; you get a free packet of delicious tea every time you eat an orange.