Homemade orange powder is super easy to make. Not only will you get a nutritious addition to smoothies, oatmeal, etc. when you add the orange powder, but you will also have just drank freshly squeezed orange juice too which is a step for making the powder! It is a win-win. So, let’s give you some details.
Make delicious food healthier
I always try to sneak some nutrients into my family’s meals. Sometimes I even try to hide them with recipes such as green eggs (hid spinach), pepperoni pizza (hid cauliflower instead of flour), brownies (hid garbanzo beans instead of flour), ground beef pasta (hid spinach), cheesecake (hid walnuts instead of biscuits) and generally trying to make delicious food healthier. The homemade orange powder is another try of mine to add nutrients to drinks, breakfast, salads, dishes, and pretty much anything as the taste could not be even noticed if you put a little bit of the powder. But as the saying goes, every little thing helps.
How to use the pulp to make powder
In this recipe, we talk about orange powder and using pulp from oranges only. However, feel free to use any other pulp you have. For example, I usually juice oranges with celery, cranberry, carrots, and pineapple to name a few. Then I use that pulp to dry and grind it to add nutrition to our food. Most of the time, especially if I use a small teaspoon of powder, nobody can tell that I have added anything. Note that we are not using orange peels to make the powder. Orange peels have a much stronger flavor. Orange powder is a score for me since our bodies need daily vitamins and minerals. Especially Vitamin C which the body cannot store and is needed to boost our immune system.
How We Came Up With The Orange Powder Recipe
In my kitchen, I rarely waste anything. Hence, you will see many of our recipes use residual items from cooking. For example, when making pizza from cauliflower we freeze the cauliflower juice as a stock. Or when making our own cottage cheese, we use the liquid for smoothies.
My family enjoys drinking fresh juice in the morning. It is very nutritious and fills our body with needed vitamins and minerals. Since I don’t like waste, I started collecting the pulp to dry, grind and use for our food as a nutrient booster. That is how this recipe was born, and I plan on posting some more ideas.
Reminders When Making The Orange Powder
Making homemade orange powder is super easy. However, we wanted to include a few reminders
- Try to use the pulp as soon as possible to preserve more vitamins. If you need to store it, store it in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.
- Set the dehydrator to fruits. Some dehydrators may not have the category fruits. In such cases, use the recommended fruit drying temperature.
- Dry the pulp until it gets hard. When you bend the bunch of pulp it needs to break. If it only bends, it might be harder to grind it. We are not making fruit spread so dry the pulp until it gets ready to grind.
- Experiment with where to add the powder. I sometimes even add it to my tea!
Ingredients for the Orange Powder
There is only 1 ingredient needed for the orange powder – fresh oranges. Oranges are rich in vitamins A and C, calcium, folic acid, and potassium. I try to make fresh orange juice at least 3 times a week. It is super quick to make and it boosts our immune system. Once you get into the rhythm of making orange juice, even cleaning the juicer will not be a daunting step.
Equipment
To get pulp from the oranges, you will need a juicer. Unfortunately, you cannot use the citrus hand juicer because you need to separate the pulp from the juice. To dry the pulp, you will need a dehydrator. Dehydrators are expensive, but it is a great investment. My kids love dry mango and I think I have already saved enough money on dried mango to fully pay for the dehydrator cost! Finally, you need something to grind the dried pulp. I use the Oyster Blender on the grind setting, but you can also try it with a coffee grinder. I haven’t used the coffee grinder, but I imagine it might work.
Homemade Orange Powder From Scratch
Equipment
Ingredients
- 16 oranges
Instructions
- Wash hands with soap and water. Check out our article about how to wash hands properly
- Gather all ingredients
- Spread the pulp into the drying trays of the dehydrator.
- Set the dehydrator to "fruits" and turn it on.
- Dry the orange pulp for about 9 and a half hours until the pulp becomes hard. For example, when you bend the orange pulp it needs to break (and not bend).
- Transfer the dried orange pulp to a blender and grind it.
- Once the pulp is powdered, then transfer it to a storage container.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- You can use any pulp to dry it and use it as added vitamins to your food
- This recipe is an example of using the orange pulp to add to smoothies. However, I dried vegetable pulp too and added it to salads
- We don’t like wasting so you will see many of our recipes are reusing residual items from cooking and making something out of them. For example, when making pizza from cauliflower we freeze the cauliflower juice as a stock. Or when making our own cottage cheese, we reuse the liquid in smoothies.
Nutrition
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