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Mix up fresh citrus for this super salsa

Recipe: Citrus salsa with fresh orange, mandarin, kumquat and lime

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED FEB 9, 2025

Mixed chopped citrus pieces make a bright and lively salsa. Serve it at a meal with meats or Southwestern dishes, or with tortilla chips for an appetizer. Debbie Arrington

This versatile salsa is like a bite of winter sunshine. And for the backyard farmer, it makes the most of what you’ve got.

Like many gardeners with home-grown citrus, I often end up with an assortment of (precious few) fruit. Small citrus trees yield harvests that I can count on my fingers. What do you do with a handful of kumquats?

It’s the kumquats that add something extra to this juicy mix; their edible skin give the salsa some extra crunch and zest.

For this batch, I used one orange, two mandarins and three kumquats to make the 1 cup chopped citrus. Grapefruit and tangerine work, too.

Citrus for salsa — A mix of citrus makes a lively salsa.

Chop the ingredients smaller if you plan to serve alongside chips. Otherwise, this citrus salsa makes a flavorful accompaniment to seafood, chicken, pork, steak or Southwestern fare such as steak tacos or pork enchiladas.

Citrus salsa

Makes about 1-1/2 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup mixed chopped citrus such as orange, mandarin, kumquat, tangerine or grapefruit

Juice of 1 lime, preferably Mexican lime

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons red onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons green onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon cilantro, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

1/8 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions:

Prepare fruit. Peel and seed most citrus before chopping. Slice kumquats very thin, without peeling; discard seeds.

In a medium bowl, mix together lime juice, olive oil, red and green onion, cilantro, red pepper flakes, white pepper and garlic salt. Add chopped citrus; toss gently.

Refrigerate for 1 hour or more to let flavors meld. It’s best served within one day.

Serve with chips, quesadillas, enchiladas, tacos, etc., or as an accompaniment to seafood, pork, chicken or steak.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes salsa citrus oranges limes kumquats mandarins grapefruit tangerines appetizer Sacramento gardening backyard orchard farmers markets produce management

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Garden checklist for week of May 10

Take it easy during that high heat – then get to work! Your garden is calling.

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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