Citru-sauce - applesauce reimagined

Applesauce - with a delicious twist ^{^}

Homemade applesauce is the best! I’ve made my own applesauce for years. Nothing I can buy comes close to it in flavor. This recipe, however, is for a fresh (uncooked) applesauce consisting only of fruit, with an optional touch of honey. It’s a surprising and easy way to get your fruit for the day. I like to have this with my breakfast, but it’s good anytime.

You may be surprised by the inclusion of an entire lemon. Try it once and you’ll be persuaded, I assure you. Lemon truly is a magic ingredient in so many dishes, both sweet and savory.

Ingredients ^{^}

• lemon: one medium, peeled (seed removal is not necessary, but I usually remove them) SEE how to peel a lemon
• orange - one medium, peeled
• mandarin oranges - 3 (or replace these with a second orange)
• apples, organic (because we’ve not peeling them) - 2 medium small or 1 large, cut in quarters - core removed.
• 1 T honey - nice whether needed or not. If your apples are not fully ripe you’ll need it to balance the lemon. You can taste the blend before removing it from your blender and add the honey if needed.

Preparation ^{^}

Place the fruit in your blender in the order given, as the citrus needs to be puréed into juice so that the apple chunks can be pulled into the mix and blended. (Yes, the picture above shows the apples slices in the bottom. Don’t do that!). Start at medium speed, the quickly go up to the highest speed. Be patient at this point and allow your blender to make juice out of the citrus. Allow the blender to run for at least 30 seconds or longer.

If it seems too thick, you can add a bit of water, but I never do.

Pour it all into a large glass. Drink immediately.

And if you’re lucky and can use blood oranges, you will get this lovely pink mixture. Exceptional!