Lemons — The Secret Ingredient to Delicious Dishes

And are you making this mistake with them?

If I was on a desert island and had to choose between having an endless supply of lemon or chocolate — lemons would win hands down. It wouldn’t be just about avoiding scurvy, although I’m sure there’s nothing fun about all your teeth falling out.

But lemons have a zest for life (corny I know) that can’t easily be beaten in my kitchen and hopefully yours too.

So sorry about that, chocolate.

Don’t Make This Sour Mistake

Oops! Most people cut a lemon in half — squeeze out the juice and throw them in the garbage. What a waste of money and lemon, because for most of us, lemons are up to a $1.00 each.

The average lemon weighs 3–4 ounces (I used my kitchen scale) so you’re paying about $4.00 a pound for them. That’s more than you pay for apples, oranges and just about any produce in your grocery store.

Oh, over-looked and healthy lemon. Let’s give you the squeeze and find out how to get the most out of you!

The Basics: Zest First.

So your recipe calls for a lemon? Don’t cut it in half.

First — wash the lemon and dry it. Then take out your micro planer/ zester /grater and zest every inch of yellow peel off the lemon. To set the matter straight— the peel is the outer yellow layer of the lemon. When you shave it into tiny little pieces — you have zest.

When you cut a lemon in half it becomes difficult to zest. So save yourself a shredded, bloody palm and zest the lemon while it is whole. And if you just need the zest — then wrap the bare, exposed lemon in a baggie and use it before it withers in a week.

Any recipe that calls for lemon juice can usually be pumped up to new heights by using all of the lemon zest as well. Honestly, once you’re in the habit of doing this— you’re going to kick yourself when you remember all those abandoned lemon halves you pitched out.

If you’re not using the zest right away? Throw it in a baggie and put it in your freezer. You can add it to everything from salad to stew. More on that in a minute.

Lemon Has Many Lovers

Many foods are enhanced by lemon juice and lemon zest. Let’s get your lemon on!

Soup and Salad

Replace the vinegar in a homemade salad dressing with the juice of one lemon and zest. This is easily the salad dressing I make the most and people always say, “Wow — this is such a good salad! Is that lemon I taste?”

Almost all soups (but not some cream soups as they can curdle) benefit from a long squeeze of lemon juice. It instantly brightens the flavor of the soup without overpowering it. And the Greek lemon egg drop soup called Avgolemono is a completely delicious mind bend.

Vegetables

Are you a lover of cheese sauce on vegetables but you’re trying to eat better? Lemon juice and zest are delicious on asparagus, steamed spinach or any other greens, peas, carrots; and even gnarly looking parsnips baked with a little lemon juice and honey are divine.

And of course — you do know lemon and dill were made for each other?

Fish and Seafood

There’s a reason why lemons are used so often with fish. It’s all about the acid as it is a flavor enhancer, like salt.

Thin slices of lemon and pieces of dill on top of a thick salmon fillet with a few asparagus spears tucked on the side, wrapped in parchment and baked may be one of my favorite dishes — ever.

Even a tuna or salmon sandwich tastes better if you add some zest and a bit of lemon juice before adding the mayo.

Shrimp is excellent with lemon.

My favorite shrimp and lemon combo of all time is Ina Garten’s shrimp salad recipe — where you boil larger shrimp in water with slices of lemon added for a total of 3 minutes. You remove them from the heat and cool them immediately in cold water. The shrimp has a light lemon flavor and it is a salad people rave about.

You probably know that raw oysters are nice with a light squeeze of lemon but so are canned, smoked oysters. Drain the oil and squeeze lemon juice over top. Give it a try.

The same technique works for canned sardines. Or do as my mother-in-law does — she warms the sardines up in their own oil in a little frying pan and serves them as an appetizer with crusty french bread and slices of lemon. And I like to sprinkle a pinch of red pepper flakes on them too. So weirdly good!

Chicken

Some people think chicken and lemon are a weird combo. What?? Have they never heard of lemon chicken? Or chicken piccata?

And one of my favorite ways to roast a chicken is with the used up lemon halves I’ve zested and juiced and stuck in a bag in the fridge or freezer. You put the used lemon halves — about 4 — inside a 4 lb chicken while it is roasting for 1.5 to 2 hrs.

When Life hands you lemons — make roast chicken.

Pasta

OK listen — if you’re not making lemon egg noodle pasta — I just feel sorry for you. You can whip it up in just a few minutes using ingredients you have in the house: egg yolks, cream, lemon, and broad egg noodles.

And spaghetti with canned clams, parsley, white wine, and lemon juice is on the menu in my house tonight. If you were here — I’d make it for you and maybe even share the wine too. Maybe.

There are 12 zillion desserts with lemon in them so I won’t write about them yet. Mainly because I have to steal my mom’s old recipes for lemon pie, lemon cake, pudding and cookies, and my grandmother’s lemon loaf. Stay tuned.

But to this day, my favorite birthday cake is a sponge cake or angel food cake, cut in half, with lemon curd or lemon pie filling in the middle and then whipped cream is mixed with lemon curd for the icing.

Eating this cake pretty much guarantees you’ll be a nicer person after eating it. No wonder Mom made it for me.

So there you go.

Some ideas on how to stretch that little $1.00 lemon in a million directions.

And may you break into a cold sweat if you ever catch yourself about to throw perfectly good lemon halves into the trash.

Thanks for reading! I have loads of food essays (delicious recipes too) and thoughtful and quirky simpler living essays waiting for you. (Well over 100 of them!) And this story caught the attention of NBC News in New York!