Here’s What to Do With Oranges: 31 Practical Uses

There’s nothing better than a perfectly ripe, tangy, and sweet orange. They really are one of life’s great pleasures. But did you know that oranges are good for so much more than snacking or enjoying at the breakfast table?

It’s true! These famous fruits have many practical uses around your home, in the garage, and in the garden, and they can be used in so many recipes, from sweet to savory.

Keep reading, and after you’re finished with this list of practical uses for the amazing orange, you’ll have a whole new appreciation for everyone’s favorite citrus fruit.

Edible Uses

Juice Them

To most of us, this is the most obvious use in the world, but it’s crazy how many people I talk to today who have never tried real, genuine, fresh-squeezed orange juice made at home. If you juice a farm-fresh orange yourself, it will ruin the boxed stuff from the grocery store forever after.

And take heart because you don’t need a big, fancy juicing machine either: an old-fashioned hand juicer or squeezer, a sack of oranges, and a little bit of elbow grease will soon give you a couple of quarts of the best orange juice you’ll ever taste. Perfect for drinking and, don’t forget, using in recipes!

Make Tea

Tea is another one of life’s great pleasures, and whether you like the genuine article, herbal tea, or both, there’s no blend that can’t be made a little better with the addition of dried orange peel.

It’s a popular ingredient in many herbal tea mixes for a reason, adding sweetness, brightness, and a little bit of tartness. It works just as well with floral notes as it does with other fruits. You can make it yourself easily by dehydrating and then mincing orange peels after you remove the pith.

Harvest the Zest

If you’re just keeping the flesh and juice of the orange, you’re throwing away one of the best parts! Orange zest, like lemon zest, is a precious ingredient.

The colorful, outermost part of the skin contains most of the oils that give these fruits their characteristic smell.

Orange zest is awesome as a garnish or ingredient in all kinds of dishes, from pies and cakes to cookies, homemade sugars, marinades, and a lot more. You can even go ahead and freeze it in ice cue trays to prolong its shelf life:

Make Orange Sugar

All you bakers out there, take note. Orange sugar, made by adding orange zest to whatever sugar you normally use, is one of those secret ingredients that adds the aroma and the barest notes of orange to whatever you’re making with the sugar, but it won’t affect the recipe otherwise.

It’s perfect for giving your usual recipes a little extra something, or taking a citrus dessert or other dish to the next level.

Bake Cranberry Orange Bread

Perfect for breakfast, dessert, or anytime a sweet tooth craving hits, cranberries and oranges simply belong together, as evidenced by this awesome, easy cranberry orange bread. You’ve got two distinctly sweet and tart fruits working in perfect harmony, and the results are nothing short of delicious.

This is a holiday favorite around my house, and I’m sure it will be around yours as well.

Put Together a Killer Meat Marinade

Orange juice isn’t the first thing many at-home chefs think of when it comes to marinating meat, but it’s time to change that. The acidity of orange juice breaks down muscle fibers to produce a truly tender cut, while the sugars infuse the meat and add sweetness.

The great thing is you can keep it simple or take the concept as far as you want with added ingredients like herbs, spices, soy sauce, and more. There are tons of recipes out there, so you’re bound to find one you like.

Deglaze Pans or Skillets With Fresh Juice to Make a Flavorful Sauce

If you need a quick and easy finish for your favorite dish, or you just didn’t have time to marinate, OJ can still come to the rescue. Deglaze your pan or skillet with a little bit of fresh juice instead of water. Use the resulting pan sauce as a garnish or ingredient as you would normally.

Add Orange Segments to Salads

Here’s a classic use for oranges you shouldn’t miss. Some small orange slices, added to nearly any salad, make a great garnish and palate cleanser. It works especially well with lighter, brighter dressings, chicken, and fish.

Make Smoothies

Nothing beats an ice-cold, homemade smoothie on a hot day. It really is comfort food! Oranges go great in lots of recipes, alongside other citrus or with tropical fruit, berries, and so much more.

Look up a few and put them on your short list to try when the weather warms up.

Homemade Orange Chicken

One of the most delicious recipes out there with orange as the star. Orange chicken is sweet, savory, sticky, and crunchy.

We’ve all got a variation we crave the most from our favorite Asian place, but you can make it yourself at home with very little effort thanks to this recipe. Pair it with some sticky white rice, and you have an awesome dinner or movie night snack.

Try This Scrumptious Cranberry Orange Relish

Another iconic holiday garnish or side dish, this cranberry orange relish is more flavorful and refreshing than any store-bought variety. It’s perfect for making your special homemade meal even better, and it’s so easy to make you can always throw it together if you need a little something to bring to a gathering.

Orange Marmalade

I love every kind of jam, jelly, and preserve. But near the very top of the list, at least in the top three, is orange marmalade. It is so satisfying on an English muffin with a little bit of butter that I can hardly describe it!

Best of all, for beginning cooks or aspiring at-home canners, it is among the easiest of recipes, and it’s the perfect one for getting your feet wet.

Candy the Peels for Festive Holiday Treats

Now here is an exquisite holiday treat that will get a rise out of kids and adults alike. Orange peels sure don’t taste good as they are, being so bitter and chewy. But subjecting them to a candy process turns them into delicate, tender, translucent, and sweet bites that the whole family will love.

If you’re having adult company over, these are also a stupendous garnish on a charcuterie plate or cocktail.

Powder the Peels for Recipes

Orange rinds can be dehydrated and then ground with a food processor or food mill into orange powder, an ingredient similar to but distinct from orange zest.

It can bulk up and flavor cookies, cakes, scones, baked goods, sauces, and even soup! It also stores wonderfully; just keep it in an airtight container in a cool, dark, and very dry place.

Try Orange-Glazed Pork

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a big fan of sweet and savory dishes, and I use oranges often when preparing meat. Let me tell you, nothing is quite as succulent, delicious, and satisfying as this dish right here: orange-glazed pork!

It’s a recipe that requires hardly any effort beyond making pork chops, but it’s so elegant and understated it will instantly level up your cooking acumen in the eyes of your family and guests.

Beet Citrus Pistachio Salad

One of my very favorite summertime dishes is this citrus pistachio salad. It hits lots of different notes and is satisfying enough to be a meal on its own or a sophisticated side to a larger course. It’s the perfect recipe if you already grow your own beets. The salty and savory notes of the pistachios play off wonderfully against both the beets and the oranges.

Harvest the Pith to Make Jam

Seasoned canners know that making most jams or jellies calls for pectin. These days, most will get it at the canning supply store or aisle and add it when called for. But you don’t have to do that if you collect the white pith from the underside of an orange skin.

Scrape it all off, place it into a tea sachet or cheesecloth sack, and then boil it with your fruit or other filling, and it will act as pectin! As always, follow all food safety and preparation instructions.

Make Creamy Orange Caramels

Another blissful orange confection, the rich sweetness of caramel is beautifully balanced by the tartness of orange. Caramels might seem fancy, and they sure taste like it, but they are easy to make yourself at home.

Grate It

Give your daily salad a unique taste by grating a whole orange over it. You’ll have to figure out the best combinations by yourself, but we tried it over grated carrot and beetroot:

Can Them!

You don’t need a pressure canner for this, a water bath is enough. We did this not long ago, here’s how it turned out…

Canned Orange Juice

if you love OJ, know that you can can that too! Here’s how to do it.

Take Your Extra-Virgin Olive Oil to the Next Level!

When I found this idea online, I thought it was strange to say the least… but as an avid EVOO consumer, it piqued my curiosity. Here’s how ours turned out – I promise that the citrus twist is worth it!

Non-edible Uses

Make Potpourri

Everybody knows how sweet and refreshing orange aroma is. Don’t settle for the fake, synthetic stuff in air fresheners.

Enjoy a better-smelling home and better air quality by whipping up a batch of potpourri using dried orange peel as the basis. To this, you can add herbs, flowers, wood, and a lot more, depending on your preferences and the season.

Once you start, you won’t stop, and homemade potpourri sachets make a great gift, too.DIY Furniture Polish

Long before there was Pledge and other furniture polish products, people would collect orange oil and combine it, 50/50, with olive oil to make a wonderfully fragrant and effective furniture polish. You can do this today if you’ve got the time and patience to collect the oil yourself.

It’s easiest to do with a press, but you can squeeze it out by hand if desired.

Start a Fire!

Did you know that oranges are quite flammable? No joke, they are. Specifically, it’s those skins containing that volatile oil.

If you need to start a campfire, cook fire, or fire pit, reach for a few dried orange peels as tinder. They will go right up. If all you have is fresh oranges, you aren’t out of luck: fold and squeeze them to spritz that oil onto dryer lint, jute, or wood shavings to make it extra flammable.

Add the Peels to a Simmer Pot

If traditional potpourri isn’t your thing, try a simmer pot. This is just what it sounds like; it is a pot with water set to simmer on the stove, and it contains all sorts of fragrant ingredients like cinnamon sticks, cloves, and, of course, orange peels!

It’s longer-lasting and far more fragrant than any weird, laboratory-made room spray. Do it the way your great-grandma did it, and thank me later!

Use Them to Make Soap

Imagine washing yourself with orange-scented soap! Best of all, this is a melt-and-pour recipe, so you don’t have to mess with lye.

Pre-Clean a Grimy Microwave

Nothing is more annoying than trying to clean a grungy, grimy microwave. It’s just hard to get in there and get at it!

Save yourself some time and grief by microwaving a bowl of fresh peels moistened with just a little bit of water. Set the microwave for a few minutes, as that is all it will take: the orange oil vapor will rapidly loosen up grime so you can easily wipe it away.

Use an Orange Half with Sugar to Exfoliate Your Skin

Oranges are good for you in more ways than one. Give your skin some TLC by cutting an orange in half, dipping it in coarse sugar so it’s fully encrusted with it, and then using the orange to gently scrub your face and neck. You can add a little coconut oil, too (check out the recipe here).

The sugar will gently remove dead skin cells while the orange juice and oil will nourish it. Just make sure you wash your face with warm water afterward!

Orange Pomander

Stick a few cloves into half an orange and you’ve got yourself a homemade air freshener! Not to mention these are eye-catching visually, take a look at the photo above.

Scrub Sinks and Surfaces with Peels and Some Salt

You can also take orange peels and some coarse salt to easily clean up a sink, basin, or other badly stained surfaces. Simply sprinkle on a generous amount of salt and use the orange peel as a scrubbing pad. The orange oil combined with the salt will make short work of most stubborn stains and do so without any harmful chemicals.

Throw Peels in Your Compost Bin

Orange peels can be composted like pretty much every other type of kitchen waste, serving as a “green” inclusion. Make sure you remove nearly all of the flesh and then include them as you would anything else and as needed.

Freshen Your Garbage Disposal

Here’s an old trick my grandmother taught me: after you’ve run your garbage disposal a couple of times, drop a load of orange peels in it along with some coarse salt. Run the disposal and repeat the process, rinsing with scalding hot water between each batch.

The tough orange rind and salt will scrub away biomatter and freshen the garbage disposal at the same time.

Whip Up Some Orange Peel Cleaner

Orange peels can be put to use around your home, garage, and more as a powerful, all-natural, and completely safe cleaner.

Simply save a bunch of fresh peels, put them in a container, and then cover them with white vinegar. Let this mixture sit for about two weeks and then strain out the liquid into a spray bottle, discarding the peels.

The resulting cleaner smells incredible, kills germs, and is completely safe for people and pets.

To Prevent Brown Sugar From Clumping

This one is really easy: simply take the peel off an orange and place it along with your sugar inside an airtight container.

Remove Scorch Marks on Pans

Scorched pans still work fine, but they are unsightly, and if you are a clean freak like me, you can only go so long before you’re tempted to throw the whole set out and just get another one. Don’t despair! You can take off those scorch marks without any harsh chemicals using orange peels.

This is the perfect project to do whenever you use a bunch of oranges for whatever reason, like making a pitcher of juice.

Simply pile all of the orange peels into whatever pan you want to clean up, add just a tiny bit of water, cover the pan, and simmer hard for at least 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, let cool slightly, and then scrub. The scorch marks should come right off! Repeat as needed.

Repel Pests

As delicious as they are, it’s hard to imagine that oranges might repel any kind of animal. But it is true! Or at least, orange oil can be a potent repellent.

You can use orange oil from fresh rinds to keep insects, rodents, and potentially cats away from your garden and other places in your home. Simply wipe and grind fresh orange skins on any safe surface, or consider leaving the peelings as a perimeter around potted plants and more. Replace as they dry out and lose their odor.

Face Mask

This is another really easy-to-make use that sounds complicated at first glance. But really, all you have to do is grind the peels to a fine powder, then mix them with water until you get a paste consistency.