"The unexpected joy of making lemon peel preserves" Wix AI

For a while, when AI was new for Wix there would always be a suggestion or two for a post title - gleaned from past posts I guess. The above is one of them and it's so AI in it's phrasing, don't you think? I guess I use words like 'joy', 'comfort' and 'fusion' often, and so they appear in these rather quaint potential post titles. 'Unexpected' seems to be a favourite Wix word too. Do I use that one a lot? I don't think so.

Wix no longer does this, although if I want inspiration I can ask. But I did note down some of those past suggestions, either because they were just so weird, or amusing, or because, in spite of the strangeness of the phrasing there was potential. And this is one of them. Alas I think I have probably covered the idea of doing things with lemon peel before, but I don't really remember the few ideas I have gathered here.

I will say at the outset that I am not covering all the various cleaning things you can do with lemon peel - but there are lots out there if you are interested.

So here is what I found. The most common one is Preserved lemons, and it's really a no-brainer. I mean why not? - because as Tom Hunt of The Guardian says

"many cooks regard the preserved lemon flesh as far too salty, so all too often cut it off and throw it away. This way of preserving lemon rinds cuts out that waste altogether."

Which is blindingly obvious really. All the recipes that use preserved lemons always tell you to cut off the pith and the flesh, so why not just use the remains of the lemons when you've squeezed them to make the preserved lemons. You are, after all, only after the preserved peel. He tells you how with his recipe for Preserved lemon peel. Maybe the flesh adds a bit of something to the preserved lemons done the usual way, but if Claudia Roden and Yotam Ottolenghi can simply boil whole lemons and call them cheats preserved lemons, then why not use the usual method for preserving them but without the flesh and the juice?

Tom Hunt also had a couple of other specific suggestions for using used lemons - Spent lemon rind marmalade tart and Caper and lemon rind salad - which you might think is a bit too mouth puckering, but apparently it's a Sicilian dish, so maybe it's just refreshing, or palate cleansing.

You could also use them for limoncello - there are recipes out there, but since I've 'done' limoncello I'm ignoring that today. I think lemon extract is possibly the same process but without the sugar. Marmalade too. However there is jam - Leftover lemon peel jam - Annika Eats and also Lemon paste - The Culinary Chase - which use similar methods and which the author says:

"can be added to marinades, dressings, yogurt dips, roasted veggies, fish, meat, or chicken and even cocktails. A small amount of the paste goes a long way due to its concentration and deep citrus flavor." The Culinary Chase

Ditto for the jam I guess, and you can do virtually the same thing with preserved lemons as well of course.

Then there's Indian lemon pickle - Eat Sleep Wild - and although I couldn't find a recipe I really can't see why you couldn't make a chutney with used lemons as well. I mean you cut it all up into small pieces and cook with your dried fruit, spices and vinegar, so why do you have to have the whole lemon, because you have the membranes and some flesh left after you have juiced a lemon don't you?

Lemon syrup from the Zero-Waste Chef is the next on your list. Use in sweet dishes, in spritzes, cordials and cocktails, or maybe even as a drizzle over salads, or spicy food. Maybe as part of a marinade as well.

The last actual recipe is an Instagram quick video for Lemon cookies from Cooking with Bello. I didn't listen to it, but I doubt there are quantities or timings given in the video, but the method is definitely there. And they do look nice.

Apart from these actual recipes there are of course lots of suggestions for what to do with those used lemon peels, apart from putting them in the compost or the green bin.

You can add them to anything you are roasting in the oven - put them inside chickens, sit things on top of a layer of them, or just tuck them here and there into a traybake, which makes me think you could probably incorporate them into a barbecue somehow. Chop them up into small pieces and add to salsas ...

"use them in salad dressings, to make buttermilk, they are a flavor bomb when roasting chicken or meat, lemon flavored salt or sugar etc." Annika Eats

"Dehydrate them scrape away pith and dry - the dehydrated peel can be used in teas and recipes. Also make lemon pepper - Take the dehydrated lemon peels you've just made and chop them finely, then mix into your pepper grater for fresh lemon pepper." 1 Million Women

(the picture is not really relevant because they are lemon slices, not spent lemons - but they are dehydrated.) And you can add the powder to salt as well.

Slightly trickier is to zest the peel and add to sugar for lemon sugar - 1 lemon to 2-3 cups of sugar, or add to butter for lemon butter. Possibly with some appropriate herb - parsley, mint, tarragon ...

And if you don't worry about electricity make your kitchen smell beautiful all day:

"A lemon simmer pot is a natural air freshener, and it couldn’t be easier to make. Add your lemon peels to a pot of water, bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and enjoy the fresh smell of lemons — it’s as easy as that. It’ll last you all day as long as you keep adding water to it when it gets too low. " Mill

I didn't tell you perhaps the most important thing - that like those Parmesan rinds, put your used lemons into a bag and freeze until you have enough to at least make a jar of preserved lemons. I really might try that.

YEARS GONE BY

June 23

2025 - Australian garlic

2024 - Nothing

2023 - Watermelon radish - tastes of Cape Schanck

2022 - Too many Italian cookbooks

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Is ignorance bliss?

2018 - Nothing

2017 - On holiday