Name: Rainbow Candied Citrus Peel
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 1 grapefruit; 2 oranges; 2 lemons; 3 limes; 2 cups sugar (+ more for coating); Water

This Rainbow Candied Citrus Peel recipe transforms your leftover citrus peels into a delectable candy! Give them as a fun homemade gift or chop them up for topping yogurt and cereal for yourself. If you’re feeling overly decadent, dip them in dark chocolate for a sweet treat that makes the perfect gift!

The tulip-man and I are currently in the throws out the 21 Day Reset trial run, meaning I’ve been without sugar for 11 days (and counting) (save for the sliver of pie that I justified for the celebration of my first “Sinterklaas”). Anyways, I’ll live vicariously through you today as I share with you these tart little sugar bombs, candied citrus peel.

If there’s one thing I love more than cooking healthy food, it’s reducing my food waste. I could go and find some statistic to tell you exactly how much food the average American wastes each year, but in the essence of getting straight to talking about this candied citrus peel, I’ll just say that it’s a LOT. So while it would be a stretch to call this candied citrus peel healthy, it’s great for turning what would be food waste into a delicious, delectable treat!

Rainbow Candied Citrus Peel

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Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 1 hour

Total: 1 hour 10 minutes

Author: Sarah Bond

Calories: 249kcal

Servings: cups

This Rainbow Candied Citrus Peel recipe transforms your leftover citrus peels into a delectable holiday candy!

Ingredients

Instructions

Use a paring knife to slice just through the peel from the top to the bottom of your citrus, cutting into fourths or eighths, depending on how thick you want your candies to be. Gently peel off the skin (save the fruit for another recipe).
Place all peels in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil, then drain. Cover with cold water again, bring to a boil again, and drain. Repeat this boil/drain process 3 to 4 times, or until a small bite of grapefruit peel isn’t overly bitter.*
Gently scrape off any mushy white bits that may be left on the inside of the peel.
In a large pot, combine peels, 2 cups sugar, and 1 cup cold water. Bring to a simmer over medium/high heat, stirring occasionally, until the peels are translucent (about 40 minutes).
Use a slotted spoon to remove peels and place them on a wire cooling rack. Let cool and dry overnight.
Finish by rolling in peels in fine sugar. At this point, you can also dip half of each in chocolate.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for a few months.

Tips & Tricks

*The purpose of this process is to remove a lot of the bitterness from the peel. The number of boil/drain repetitions totally depends on your peels (thickness, size), and your taste, but I found 3 to 4 repetitions to be about right.