Healthy Florida Cooking

The art of Florida cooking is expressed through the freshest produce, bursts of color and coastal flair. If you want to learn to cook like a Floridian, add these items to your shopping list and stock up your sunny kitchen...

Citrus Fruits


If there's just one item you keep in the ice box of your refrigerator, make it a bag of freshly picked Florida oranges. Besides being the crowning jewel of Florida's diverse agriculture, oranges are extremely versatile. Here are a few ways that you can squeeze those ripe oranges into a delicious meal, drink or dessert.

  • Start your day with a glass of frosty orange juice
  • Slice up oranges and add them to a spinach salad with slivered almonds
  • Make an orange sauce for a chicken or fish dish
  • Freeze leftover orange juice from breakfast and make popsicles
  • Blend oranges, coconut milk and sugar to create homemade ice cream

Florida also has an abundance of other citrus fruits, so mix it up with lemons, limes, key limes and grapefruits for a tart, immune-boosting treat.

Salad Ingredients

Toss in some more of those oranges, along with strawberries, mango and/or pineapple for a healthy salad that will make your skin glow and infuse you with energy. If you're craving more of a savory meal, head to your local farmer's market and pick up some more Florida-grown goods: cabbage, cucumbers, green peppers, snap peas, squash, celery, sweet corn and many varieties of lettuce all thrive here. 

  • DID YOU KNOW? Tomatoes are the second leading crop in Florida, so look for the label "Product of Florida" next time you pick up some juicy heirlooms.

Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar

Forego the grocery store salad dressings that are loaded with processed oils and syrups and make your own vinaigrette at home from high-quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. While it's fine to buy these ingredients from Publix, you also have numerous gourmet shops to choose from to take your salad dressing to the next level. Specialty olive oil boutiques import first cold-pressed olive oil from countries like Greece and Italy, and offer sumptuous flavor infusions like basil, garlic and champagne, to name a few. Balsamic vinegar also comes with delectable flavor infusions - like cherry - so that your salad dressing can double as a dessert topping. When shopping for balsamic vinegar, go for a dark, thick variety rather than a runny one. Thickness is a mark of quality in balsamic vinegar, just as a bright green color denotes excellent olive oil.

Seafood

The catch of the day is a popular menu item in Florida restaurants, but you can sizzle up your own by shopping at a fresh fish market. Fried fish is not a common sight in Southwest Florida, but baked, grilled, or broiled is. Season with herbs like rosemary and sage that you can easily grow in your own backyard or patio garden. 

As this is the American South, comfort food is an integral part of the culture. While you won't find a huge selection of hush puppies or fried okra around here, you might find this tasty Lowcountry meal of shrimp and grits that is the signature dish of Charleston, South Carolina. 

For the uninitiated (hello Northerners!) grits is mashed cornmeal that is as tasty as a side dish as it is as a breakfast cereal. Melting butter on grits is about as decadent as you can get, even here in the comfort food capital of the world. Plus, it's a trick you can try no matter what time of day you whip up a pot of grits, so grab a spoon and indulge!

Final Notes on Florida Cuisine

Fresh fruits, vegetables and seafood form the basis of Florida recipes, along with a sprinkling of Southern comfort. If you ever tire of fruity salads and citrus seafood, just remember that there are other ways to put that Sunshine State produce to use...