Broiled Grapefruit with Ginger Sugar Topping

Ginger is one of those ingredients that I’ve only started to appreciate during the last couple of years. My parents used to cook with it all the time when I lived at home and my dad, in particular, had a very heavy hand with the ginger. We’re talking sizable chunks of ginger, and usually in some sort of veggie and soba noodle type of stir-fry. My family jokingly referred to it as a “dad dinner” – noodles, vegetables, and sauce, all cooked in one big pot with enough leftovers to feed an army. Go big or go home, right?

I was never a picky eater, but I despised ginger for most of my childhood and would spend the first five minutes of my meal picking out all of the ginger and inspecting my food for cat hair (that’s a whole other story). It’s not like it was hard to pick it out, thanks to my dad treating the ginger like celery or something when he chopped it.

I’ve slowly given ginger a second chance now that I have more control over the preparation. I love it on vegetable sushi, in fresh juices, and covered in dark chocolate. But really, most things covered in chocolate are good.

This morning, after spending a solid two minutes staring down a leftover chunk of ginger in my fridge, I decided I should figure out a way to incorporate it into breakfast. I wasn’t in the mood for a smoothie and didn’t feel like having to clean the juicer. That’s when a grapefruit literally fell off the counter and hit me.

Grapefruit and ginger is an outstanding combination, and what better way to pair the two than by mixing a little sugar with some grated ginger and creating a crunchy topping for the grapefruit. It’s even better when you put everything under the broiler for a few minutes and allow the sugar to caramelize.

This.was.so.good. Dare I say that I LOVED the ginger in this recipe?

Yes, it was that awesome.