In this post, I’ll show you how to preserve lemon peel. There are a few ways to do this, but in this post, we are going to use oil and salt for this preserved lemon rind. It’s delicious! I love eating it with any chicken or fish dish or adding it to any sandwich. It lasts forever and is very simple to make.
Besides, the chickens won’t eat them and they take forever to compost, so in my belly they go.
Preserved lemon peel is a Middle Eastern/Moroccan kinda dish. In Israel, we don’t use salad dressing as much as we use it here in the U.S. Most of the time when we make salads we dress them with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt (you can watch me do it in this video).
It’s so simple, so tasty, and so much healthier than all those dressings that have a ton of mayo in them.
Unless you plan to use the zest right away, stashing large slivers of citrus peel in your freezer is a great way to preserve their flavor until the day it’s needed.
How to Preserve Lemon Peel…
And we eat a salad with almost every meal in Israel! So what is one going to do with so many lemon peels at the end of the week?
Preserve them, of course.
Preserved lemon peel will last pretty much forever and you can use it in many ways which we will talk about later.
Tools That We Are Going to Need…
This simple recipe doesn’t require much…
Cutting board – for preparing the lemons.
Knife – to cut the lemon peels.
Pot – we are going to boil the lemon peels so choose a pot large enough.
Measuring spoons – to measure the oil and salt.
A jar – to store the preserves lemon peels in. I used a quart jar for the peels of six lemons.
That’s all we need!
First, acquire a few lemons. Let’s say, you used the juice for cooking or salad or whatever, instead of throwing away the peel, place it in a zip-lock bag or a container in the fridge.
Once you have a few lemons, cut them into small pieces. We used about 6 lemons here, I think, and we cut each lemon into 8 pieces. You can go smaller or larger with your pieces, there are no rules.
Just a side note here, you can keep the lemon seeds and use them in jams since they have natural pectin in them and will thicken your jam naturally (I show how to do this in my Peach Jam post so make sure to check it out).
Place your lemon peels in a pot and fill it with water.
Place your pot on the stove top and bring the water to a boil. Lower the heat but keep your water boiling gently.
We want the peels to soften, this might take 30 minutes or maybe 45, depending on how thick your lemon peels are. Keep checking the softness with a fork just as you do with potatoes.
Once the lemons are soft, transfer them to a strainer or a colander and let them dry and cool a bit.
Once the peels are dry and cool, put them back in the pot or in a mixing bowl and add 6 tablespoons of oil…
And 4 tablespoons of salt (preferably sea salt)…
Mix the oil, salt, and lemon peel together…
Until the lemons are all coated with the oil and salt.
Then all you have to do is transfer the lemons into a jar and keep it in the fridge. They are ready to eat.
How To Store Lemon Zest For Years
FAQ
How long does lemon peel last?
Can you freeze lemon peel for later use?