Preserved Lemons - Easy to Make and Delicious!

 

I made my first batch of preserved lemons two years ago. At the time, I had never even tasted a preserved lemon. However, my friend Barb had gifted me a bunch of Meyer lemons from her tree (a frost warning had caused her to harvest about 400 lemons all at once) and I figured why not. I used the recipe here and they turned out great. Now I make preserved lemons every year. 

Here a few tips for making this recipe successfully:

·         Start by sorting your lemons.  You need to add some juice to fill up the jars, so separate out the less perfect ones for juice. It takes more lemons than you'd think and I usually end up sacrificing a few of the nicer looking lemons for juice.

·         Cut all of your lemons at once and put them into a bowl.

·         Put the cut lemons and salt in the jars and sort of squish them down. I leave all the jar lids off and then at the end go back and do more squishing and maybe add more lemons and juice to fill up the jars.

·         Wipe the rims with a clean cloth and set on the counter for a few days. Shake the jars periodically. The recipe says to put the jars upside down but I found that one or two would always leak and it makes a big mess so I just shake them periodically.

Using preserved lemons

I use the lemons mainly in spinach (chopped and added while it’s cooking) and chicken piccata (chopped and added to sauce at the end). I made a lot of lemons so I will be looking to use them in lots of other things this year.

Have you ever made preserved lemons? If so, how do you use them?