Winter Citrus Yogurt Bowl

Give yourself a dose of sunshine and vitamin C with this easy and delicious winter citrus yogurt bowl recipe.

Made with thick creamy yogurt, toasted nuts and juicy citrus segments, it's an easy and delicious breakfast for dreary winter days.

"Can you put sour things on yogurt?" my friend asked at dinner the other night.

We were looking at a photo of this winter citrus yogurt bowl on my phone, while we waited for the waitress to take our orders. He was concerned that the fruit would be too sour when paired with tangy yogurt. I assured him that the combination is actually tasty, but he was skeptical.

I understand his hesitation. I had a similar thought the first time I saw citrus on a yogurt parfait. While I've often added fresh berries to yogurt in the summer months, the idea of adding oranges to yogurt never used to appeal to me. I didn't think that combination would be something that I would enjoy.

It was only when I found myself in the (somewhat awful) coffee shop at my previous job, starving at 8:30 am having left the house on an empty stomach 2 hours before, that I decided to give it a shot.

I bought an overpriced plastic cup of yogurt with 3 slices of clementines, a sprinkling of granola, and 2 pecan halves and took it back to my desk. It turns out that citrus on yogurt is delicious! That fresh burst of juice paired with creamy yogurt is so satisfying to eat - especially when you pair it with crunchy toasted nuts.

Yogurt Bowl Ingredients

This recipe is pretty simple, and you can make substitutions to suit your own tastes and dietary needs! Here's what I used in this recipe. 

• Citrus segments from 1 orange, 1 blood orange, 1 clementine
• Plain 2% Greek yogurt
• Toasted chopped pecans

How to Customize Your Citrus Yogurt Bowl

There are so many ways that you can tailor this recipe to make it your own! Here are some ideas for ingredient additions and substitutions.

I personally try to minimize the amount of sugar that I eat a breakfast time, but if that's not a concern for you then I'd recommend adding a drizzle of honey or maple syrup to your yogurt bowl. That little bit of sweetness helps to balance out all of the tart flavours in this dish.

I used 3 different citrus fruits for this recipe, but you don't have to do that if you don't want to.

I chose regular oranges for their sweetness, blood oranges for their colour, and clementines for their bright flavour. You could just use oranges, or you could add some mandarin orange segments. Grapefruit segments might also be nice.

Honestly, any sweet citrus should work here. I'd avoid lemons and limes, although you could try adding a bit of lemon zest for extra flavour.

I decided to cut my citrus into supremes because I don't like having the membranes on the fruit for this dish.

If you don't know how to supreme citrus fruits, there's a handy tutorial over on Martha Stewart's website that you can follow. And if you'd rather not go through all the fuss, you could just peel and segment the fruits instead.

For the nuts, I enjoy pecans the most but you add sliced almonds or chopped pistachios instead. Or you can omit the nuts entirely, and add toasted coconut flakes, granola, or pomegranate seeds for crunch instead.

Now, the "healthiness" of this winter citrus yogurt bowl recipe depends entirely on what yogurt you choose to use.

As much as I love full-fat flavoured yogurts, I've come to realize that they are too rich to be a part of my regular breakfast routine.

For example, one of my favourite yogurts is Liberté's Coconut 9% yogurt, which is made from milk and cream. It's super creamy and very sweet. I shouldn't have been surprised when I finally read the nutrition label and discovered that I was eating 10g of saturated fat and 22g of sugar for a ¾ cup portion.

So instead I've switched to Liberté's plain sweetened 2% yogurt, which has 2g of saturated fat and 13g of sugar for the same portion size. 

You can use any yogurt you enjoy eating, but I personally think the citrus pairs best with thick yogurt, like Greek yogurt or Skyr yogurt. You could use flavoured yogurt if you want to (vanilla would be yummy), or stick with plain. Either one will work here.

Citrus yogurt bowls are such a nice way to start your morning in the winter months. It's a bright pop of colour, a nice dose of vitamin C, and a healthy way to start your day.

I hope you'll give this recipe a try! If you do make it, let me know in the comments below!