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This dairy free blood orange curd is sweetened with honey and tastes amazing on its own, on ice cream, with chocolate cake, or on top of pancakes.
At the risk of having someone say that there are too many curd recipes on my site, I’m bringing you a dairy-free, honey-sweetened blood orange curd today. The very first recipe I ever posted here on A Calculated Whisk was for a classic lemon curd, and I also have ones for strawberry curd and dairy-free lemon curd. Oh, and there’s a paleo lemon curd in my cookbook, Paleo Planet.
Why more curd? The short answer: because blood oranges (see Exhibit A below–how can anyone resist?). The longer answer is that I wanted to see how simple and wholesome a citrus curd could get by using a base of just freshly-squeezed juices, eggs, and honey. There are two more ingredients–a tiny splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt–to help the orange flavor pop a little more, but that’s all you need to make this blood orange curd. It’s simple and it’s real food, but it tastes like the melted creamsicle sauce of your dreams.
If you can’t find blood oranges, you can use regular ones. The color will of course be different, but the curd will still be scrumptious. If you find Cara Cara oranges, those would be a nice compromise–I recently ate one that was darker in color than some of the blood oranges I used to make this curd.
In case you’re not entirely sure what a citrus curd is, I’ll tell you: it’s like a cross between a jam and a custard but it’s better than both, and it’s traditionally served with scones and clotted cream for high tea in England. Lemon curd is the standard, but curd can be made with any kind of citrus, or with citrus and a variety of other fruits. The basic formula is lemon juice, egg, sugar, and butter, but here I’ve omitted the butter and used raw, local honey instead of sugar without making any sacrifices in flavor or texture. This curd does come out a little thinner than other curds I’ve made because of those changes, but that actually makes it perfect for how I prefer to use it: as a sauce to elevate all manner of grain-free desserts and breakfasts from good to just ridiculous.
