38 Fantastic Citrus Recipes Worth Making

We have a list of thirty-eight delicious citrus recipes you will love! Whether looking for weeknight dinners, citrusy drinks, or desserts, we have all the healthy citrus recipes.

Most of these delicious recipes are easy and can be made with ingredients found at the grocery store during citrus season. This list includes some of our reader's favorite citrus recipes. This list has everything from chicken recipes to pasta and lots of seafood recipes.

Citrus season typically starts in late fall and goes through the winter, but as their peak seasons vary, at least one type of citrus is usually available year-round.

Salads with Citrus

Featuring fresh citrus in salads is one of my favorite things. Check out some of these fantastic salads with wonderful citrus flavors.

Citrus Berry Spinach Salad

This berry citrus salad packs several servings of fresh fruit and greens and is topped with a simple homemade vinaigrette. It's quick to make and full of great flavors.

Citrus Pomegranate Salad

This citrus salad combines citrus pieces, crumbly feta cheese, bright greens, slivered shallots (or red onions), pomegranate seeds, and a zesty dressing for an exceptional winter salad. It's juicy, fresh, packed with vitamin C, and full of bright flavor.

Cara Cara Orange Panzanella Salad

Cara Cara orange Panzanella salad includes tomatoes, red onion, and arugula mixed with a little oil and breadcrumbs. It makes for a brilliant salad and a beautiful use for Cara Cara oranges.

An overhead shot of citrus panzanella on a platter.

Artichoke Potato Salad with Dill

A potato salad with a twist! This one adds the delicious and creamy flavors of artichoke hearts with juice of a Meyer lemon to create the most delicious potato salad.

Artichoke potato salad with carrots on a blue and white platter.

Blood Orange Salad

You'll want to add this to your list to make during peak citrus season! With fresh blood orange slices, a mix of baby greens, creamy avocado, and feta cheese, all mixed with a tasty vinaigrette, this will be your new favorite salad recipe.

Kumquat Radish Salad with Dukkah

This delicious kumquat salad with watermelon radishes, radicchio, and dukkah seasoning is a bright pop of flavor. It's bursting with fresh produce and topped with a delicious, nutty blend.

A large wooden salad bowl with a greens, radicchio, kumquats, watermelon radishes, and tongs.

Green Goddess Cabbage Salad

While this looks like a simple cabbage salad, it's packed with a ton of flavor - including lemon juice from two whole lemons. It makes a wonderful side dish, or add your favorite protein and make it a meal on its own. You'll blend a delicious and creamy salad dressing made with garlic, fresh herbs, nutritional yeast, and walnuts. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the punch of flavor this salad packs!

A green cabbage salad in a metal mixing bowl with a serving spoon.

Orange Fennel Salad

Combining grapefruit, Cara Cara oranges, blood oranges, crunchy fennel, and soft mozzarella makes this a delicious and bright fruit salad. It's a fantastic side dish or light lunch. It's a riot of colorful, tangy citrus flavor that looks beautiful on a dinner table.

A citrus fennel and mozzarella salad in a serving bowl.

Grapefruit Salad

The bitterness of the grapefruit is offset by the avocado and feta in this salad. So if you find grapefruit overwhelming on its own, this simple recipe will be perfect for you. The creamy avocado, tangy grapefruit, soft feta cheese, and crunchy pepitas make this the perfect salad.

A grapefruit avocado salad in a white serving bowl.

Seafood Citrus Recipes

Citrus and seafood complement each other so well. Here are a few seafood recipes with lovely citrus flavors.

Grilled Halibut

This halibut is perfectly grilled with a lovely citrus butter flavor that's hard to resist. Grilled fish has a mouthwatering flavor, and it's easy to make! Add microgreens when serving for a beautiful pop of color.

Lemon Garlic Gulf Shrimp

Make a lemon butter with fresh lemon juice, herbs, and garlic, and enjoy this shrimp roasted to perfection. It's so easy to make and only takes a few minutes of hands-on time, making it perfect for a weeknight meal.

A spoon pouring garlic butter sauce onto gulf shrimp.

Lemon Herb Grilled Shrimp

You'll first make a delicious marinade with lots of lemon, herbs, and spices, then perfectly grill shrimp so they are tender and succulent. You only need to marinate for 15 minutes, so this main dish is ready in about 35 minutes and has great flavor for adding to other dishes, like salads, wraps, and pasta dishes.

Lemon Garlic Sole

Sole is a delicious, delicate fish that's easy to cook. Made with olive oil, lemon, parsley and garlic, this sole is a fantastic, flavorful dish that's ready in about 10 minutes.

Baked sole fillets on a white plate with lemon slices.

Lemon Baked Swordfish

Swordfish is a fantastic steak-like fish with a subtle, buttery flavor that pairs perfectly with bright citrus. This recipe is incredibly simple, but it's date night meal-worthy.

Baked Lemon Salmon

This lemon garlic salmon baked in foil is a delicious, healthy dinner perfect for busy weeknights. It's got an excellent garlic butter topping that makes the salmon extra decadent and super tender. It's ready in about 30 minutes but only requires about 10 minutes of hands-on prep time.

Seafood Pasta with White Wine

Seafood pasta with white wine and lemon hits all the right flavor notes! It balances tender shrimp with a lovely buttery sauce and tasty angel hair pasta. This recipe is very similar to shrimp scampi, only served with pasta for a filling and comforting meal.

Shrimp angel hair pasta in a skillet with a large serving fork and spoon.

Chicken Citrus Recipes

These are just a few delicious chicken recipes that feature lemon. They're easy to make and meals the whole family will love.

Awesome Lemon Chicken Pasta

This delicious lemon pasta with spinach's name says it all. It's wildly flavorful with parmesan, leeks, lemon juice, and lemon zest. It comes together in about 30 minutes, making it an easy, healthy dinner recipe.

Lemon chicken pasta with sliced lemons and spinach on top.

Lemon Chicken Rice Soup

While this soup is on the thicker side, from the rice and tender chicken, it's brightened up with lots of lemon, leeks, carrots, and celery. Making it comforting in the winter months but still light enough to be enjoyed any time of year.

Lemon Pepper Chicken Thighs

This chicken recipe is truly a standout dinner. Made with a lemon pepper season and baked to perfection, this chicken only takes 5 minutes to prep. It's delicious with a side of green beans and roasted potatoes or a simple side salad.

A baking dish with chicken thighs covered in lemon pepper seasoning.

Citrus Drink Recipes

From boozy drinks to a special lemonade, I have a few citrus drinks that are delightful.

Ginger Lime Margarita

This margarita is potent and delicious and truly a standout cocktail. The ginger pairing with the lime is sharp, acidic, and has a beautiful aromatic smell. It makes for an incredibly tasty and memorable cocktail.

Blood Orange Whiskey Sour

This blood orange whiskey sour is a delightful cocktail! You'll make a bit of your own orange juice with a blood orange and combine it with the juice of a lemon. It's sour and sweet and the best combination of flavors. It doesn't hurt that it's really pretty as well.

Tinto de Verano

Made with lemonade, a navel orange, blood orange, and a fresh lemon, this refreshing and flavorful wine drink is perfect for a warm summer day!

Creamy Lemonade

Creamy lemonade is made with sweetened condensed milk to give it a creamy consistency. It is even better than classic lemonade. This tasty drink tastes similar to lemon meringue pie. This recipe makes a large pitcher of lemonade, so you can save it in the refrigerator and drink it all week or serve it at a party.

Fennel, Black Pepper, and Grapefruit Gin and Tonic

This fennel and grapefruit gin and tonic recipe is an unexpectedly delightful cocktail! You'll love the unique flavor combination of sweet and peppery.

Gin and tonic with grapefruit, fennel, and black pepper.

Citrus Dessert Recipes

Grilled Pineapple with Lime Mint Sauce

Grilled pineapple is topped with fresh mint and lime juice chutney to make a bright and zingy dessert recipe that's light enough for a warm summer night or after a larger meal.

Grilled pineapple with a mint sauce on top.

Dark Chocolate Covered Citrus Peels

Made from clementine and grapefruit peels, these delicious little treats are the perfect marriage of orange + chocolate. And make a great holiday gift for citrus lovers.

dark chocolate covered clementine peels on parchment

Mandarin Orange Bundt Cake

This mandarin orange Bundt cake recipe is fruity and delicious. It's a wonderful winter recipe and makes for a great dessert at a holiday dinner or weekend brunch. It's wonderfully citrusy and feels like a bright and fresh treat.

orange bundt cake with glaze on a glass cake plate

Citrus Condiments and Extras

These citrus-flavored extras will help make cooking more interesting and give your next dish great flavors.

Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Add citrus fruit flavors to your food year-round by making a big batch of this seasoning. Made by drying lemon peels (make the insides into some creamy lemonade) and blitzing them in the food processor and adding to a few other seasonings, you get a vibrant lemon pepper seasoning that's so fresh. You can enjoy lemon flavors even when you can't find any lemons.

Citrus Honey Salad Dressing

Citrus vinaigrette is so simple to make yet packs a flavorful punch! It's a honey lime dressing that adds incredible flavor to salads and makes for a delicious dipping sauce for chicken tenders.

Preserved Lemons

Preserving lemons allows the citrus flavor to shine while removing some of the tartness, making them a great way to brighten up a dish without adding bitterness. Preserved lemons are often used in Moroccan tagines, Cambodian and Indian cuisine, and as a garnish in Bloody Marys. They're so versatile and worth adding to your condiments cabinet!

Dried Orange Peels

Dried orange peels are an especially great idea for anyone who has orange trees and needs to use them up. This recipe works great with all types of oranges. We've dried Cara Cara oranges, navel oranges, and all types of mandarins. They're all delicious.

Dill Sauce for Seafood

Made with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream or mayo, this dill sauce is full of zesty lemon flavors and makes the perfect dipping sauce or topping for all kinds of seafood.