Learning how to segment an orange can be a right of passage which is why we have a handy guide to walk you through the easy steps. Once you have mastered the segmenting orange skill, you can transfer this method to all citrus fruits. Not only do we provide the steps to segmenting an orange but we inform you on the health benefits of this fruit and recommend recipes for you to try! Be sure to let us know how you found our steps by contacting us on social media.
How to Segment an Orange
In six simple steps you will have learnt how to segment an orange:
- Things you will need
To segment an orange, we recommend having an orange, a chopping board, a bowl and a small serrated knife. This type of knife is useful to use and works well when segmenting an orange as it can go through the skin easily.
- Top and tail your orange
The first step you want to perform is topping and tailing your orange. To do this, you want to place your orange on the chopping board and with your small serrated knife, carefully cut the top and the bottom away from the orange. What you are looking for is to take the entire pith off the orange. This means once you have cut the top and bottom away, you will be able to see the inside of the fruit.
- Saw around the orange to remove the pith
Continuing to remove the outer skin, place the flat bottom edge onto the chopping board. Following the curved shape of the orange, take your small serrated knife and cut the pith and skin away from the fruit. You want to make sure you are taking all of the white pith away from the orange, without cutting into the segments themselves. Repeat this all the way around the orange until you have removed the outer skin. If you miss some of the white pith you can always go back at the end and remove it.
- Looking for the segments in the orange
The next step is to hold the orange in your hand and look where the segments are. The indication of segments are usually created with faint lines of where the white pith was.
- Cutting the orange segments
Once you have found the segments, take your small serrated knife, at an angle, and begin to cut into the segment. Once you have made a small incision, take your knife, at an angle, and make another incision on the other side of the same segment. Cutting at an angle means the segment will keep its shape and be able to fall out of the orange easier. Ultimately, this task sees you remove the membrane in between each segment. Repeat this process around the whole orange.
- Squeeze the juice
Now you have cut all of the segments from the orange, you may think the membrane left is waste, but this can be used. Using your bowl, grab the membrane of the orange in your hand and squeeze the juices into the bowl. You may be surprised by how much juice you receive from the orange. The juice is a great addition to salad dressings when you place the whole segments in the dish too!
Health Benefits of Oranges
Oranges can provide numerous health benefits and legend has it they can warn off colds. Is this true? Well the vitamins and minerals these juicy citrus fruits can provide make this ingredient count towards one of your 5-a-day. Although, if drinking in liquid form, the NHS has stated that no matter how much orange juice you drink it would only count once. This being said segmented oranges feature in an array our our healthy recipes and the nutritional benefits are:
- High in vitamin C – Vitamin C is a well rounded element as it can help the uptake of iron intake, as well as being a good source of protective antioxidants. This fundamentally helps to protect cells from being damaged, so they could play a small role in helping to fight colds after all!
- Anti-inflammatory & antimicrobial properties – These elements could help to reduce high blood pressure, but it is found that the orange peel can contain higher amounts of nutrients. For this reason, incorporating orange peel into recipes could be beneficial.
- Excellent source of antioxidants – Antioxidant compounds called hesperidin may help your heart health by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. This means oranges are a heart healthy food to consume.
A combination of all these properties is needed to ensure your body receives all the vital nutrients of a balanced diet.
2 Delicious recipes Including Orange Segments
Put your new orange segmenting skills into practice with the help of our delicious recipes. We have incorporated a fish and chicken dish, but these can be adjusted to suit a vegan diet.
Tuna with Orange & Peanut Noodle Salad
Looking for sustainably sourced tuna and Asian flavours combined? Discover our tuna with orange & peanut noodle salad. The combination of ingredients is a match made in heaven. Sizzle with orange citrus, peanut paste and ginger, then serve on a nest of filling brown rice noodles and veg. Finish with a scattering of toasted peanuts.
- Cook time: 25 mins
- Allergens: Fish, Peanuts, Soya
- Cuisine: Asian
- Key ingredient: Flaky sustainably sourced fish
- Calories: 685
- Protein: 50g
- Carbs: 77g
- Fat: 21g
Full of vibrant colours, our tuna with orange juice dish can be the perfect light lunch or dinner. What’s even better is this healthy recipe takes just over 15 minutes to create! Our recommended portion size for this orange recipe is for two people but can easily be halved to create an individual portion.
Why We Love This Orange Juice Recipe
Orange juice is an essential ingredient in this Asian cuisine, but this dish also features another healthy ingredient, carrots. Carrots are a root vegetable which many people opt for when choosing the perfect addition in their side slaw. Being crunchy, soft and highly nutritious, it’s not surprising to see these brightly coloured vegetables contain so many vitamins and minerals. In particular, carrots are a great source of vitamin A, vitamin K1 and potassium. These particular vitamins contribute to controlling your blood pressure, helping with your vision and can help to promote bone health.
Orange Recipe Ingredients
Creating an easy recipe which incorporates oranges is simple. You will need these ingredients:
- 150g red cabbage
- 1 carrot
- 2 garlic clove
- 4cm fresh ginger
- 1 lime
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 100g brown rice noodles
- 1 orange
- 30g deep roast peanut butter (Peanuts)
- 80g sugar snap peas
- 20g toasted peanuts (Peanuts)
- 2 tbsp tamari (Soya)
- 2 wild caught albacore tuna steak (Fish)
Orange Juice Recipe Instructions
To get started on your dish, which includes orange juice, follow these easy instructions:
- Boil a kettle. Peel the ginger and grate. Peel the carrot, then peel into thin ribbons. Thinly slice the cabbage. Finely chop or crush the garlic. Halve the orange. Halve the lime.
- Make the dressing; to a large bowl add the juice from the orange, the juice from the lime, peanut butter, tamari, ginger, maple syrup and 1 tsp oil.
- Heat a medium, non-stick frying pan with 1/2 tsp oil on a medium-high heat. Season the tuna, place in the pan and cook for 1-2 mins on each side, then transfer to a plate to rest for a few mins. Meanwhile, add the garlic and half the dressing to the pan and cook for 1 min, stirring constantly.
- Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Cook the sugar snaps for 1 min, then remove using a slotted spoon. Add the noodles to the water, gently separate with a fork and boil for 3 mins. Drain and run under cold water to cool, then place in the bowl with the remaining dressing.
- Add the mangetout, carrots and cabbage to the bowl with the noodles. Toss to combine; season with sea salt and black pepper.
- Serve the noodle salad topped with the tuna and drizzled with the warm dressing. Scatter with the toasted peanuts.
Our online blog and social media channels can make finding new, delicious recipes easy! We upload and highlight our favourite dishes from all around the world including: Mexican cuisines, Italian cuisines and European cuisines. Discover new flavours to try now!
Harissa Chicken, Cucumber & Orange Salad
An eye-catching dinner, full of bold flavours, try our yummy harissa chicken, cucumber & orange salad now! Harissa-spiced, free-range chicken is paired with juicy orange slices, crunchy cucumber ribbons and a bed of peppery rocket. To finish: lashings of turmeric, lemon and coconut sauce.
- Cook time: 30 mins
- Cuisine: Mediterranean
- Key ingredient: Free-range Norfolk chicken breast
- Calories: 678
- Protein: 52g
- Carbs: 57g
- Fat: 28g
Perfect for the spring time or warm summer evenings, our chicken and orange salad can suit all palates. We recommend the portion size of this healthy poultry recipe is for a couple or an individual with leftovers for the following day.
Why We Love This orange Segment Recipe
Alongside the citrus orange segments, this recipe features another healthy ingredient, chicken. Chicken is a popular choice, when you want to reduce your intake of red meat. It can also provide your body numerous health benefits, such as adding protein to your diet. As a lean cut of meat, chicken provides an excellent source of amino acids to the body. Amino acids are needed to help build muscle tissue, which is vital as we grow older. Our mango salsa recipe uses free-range chicken breasts. The vitamins you can gain from chicken includes: vitamin B12, zinc and iron. These minerals and vitamins all contribute to a healthy, balanced diet.
Orange Recipe Ingredients
To create an easy Mediterranean cuisine, you will need these ingredients:
- 2 free-range chicken breasts
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 15g creamed coconut
- 1 baby cucumber
- 2 tsp harissa paste
- 1 lemon
- 1 orange
- 250g ready-to-eat quinoa
- 60g radishes
- 40g rocket
- ½ tsp turmeric
Orange Segment Recipe Instructions
To make a healthy dish in 30 minutes, follow these easy instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 and boil a kettle. Place the harissa paste in a bowl with 1 tbsp oil and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Add the chicken breasts to this bowl and coat them in the harissa.
- Transfer the chicken to a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins, until cooked through.
- Meanwhile, cut the ends off the baby cucumber, deseed and slice in half lengthways. Thinly slice the cucumber into half-moons and thinly slice the radishes. Peel and slice the orange into segments (reserve the remaining orange for later).
- Heat a saucepan with 1 tsp oil on a medium heat. Break up the quinoa in the pouch and add to the pan along with 1 tbsp cold water. Season with sea salt and black pepper, then cook for 3 mins until heated through. Squeeze over the remaining juice from the orange. Mix the juice through the quinoa along with 1 tsp oil.
- Make the turmeric sauce; in a small bowl dissolve the creamed coconut in 30ml boiling water. Mix in the ground turmeric, a generous pinch of the ground coriander and a squeeze of lemon juice.
- Thinly slice the chicken. Place the rocket on two plates and top with the quinoa, cucumber pieces, orange segments, sliced radishes and harissa chicken. Drizzle over the turmeric sauce.
Once you have created and tasted this orange segment dish, share for your family and friends to recreate. But also remember to tag us so we can see the final creation! If you now want to find new inspiration our blog is the perfect place. A selection of our recent posts include: 2022 food trends, food for thought in 2022 and 2 speedy chicken pasanda recipes. Read them to gain inspiration for your next healthy meal to share with loved ones.
More from Mindful Chef
Discovered how to segment an orange and want more ways to include it in meals? Find more recipes incorporating orange segments with the help of Mindful Chef. We have more than 1,000 healthy, delicious recipes available to choose from that you can make each day of the week. Whether you like healthy winter recipes, healthy autumn recipes, healthy summer recipes or healthy spring recipes, we have something delicious for the whole year!
Choosing one of our healthy recipe boxes, makes trying our delicious orange recipes covenant and quick. In need of feeding the whole family? Select our family recipe box, alternatively if you want an all vegan selection, our vegan recipe box is the answer. Simply choose your dishes, pick a delivery date and we take care of the rest! The convenient recipe boxes get delivered to your door and inside you will find fresh, responsibly sourced ingredients with an easy recipe card to follow! What’s more, our entire range is gluten free. Try your first box with Mindful Chef today!