Preserved Lemons

  • Prep Time: 120 hrs
  • Total Time: 120 hrs 5 mins
  • Yield: 48pieces
  • About This Recipe

    “This is an adaptation of Paula Wolfert’s quick method, made even faster by blanching the lemons first. We love it in all kinds of salads and as a low-fat alternative to olives.”

    Ingredients

  • 2 1/2-3lbslemons( 10 to 12)
  • 2/3 cupcoarse salt
  • 1/4 cupolive oil
  • Directions

  • Blanch 6 lemons in boiling water 5 minutes.
  • When cool enough to handle, cut lemons into 8 wedges each and discard seeds.
  • Toss with salt in a bowl and pack into jar.
  • Squeeze enough juice from remaining lemons to measure 1 cup.
  • Add enough juice to cover lemons and cover jar with lid.
  • Let stand at room temperature, shaking gently once a day, 5 days.
  • Add oil and chill.
  • Preserved lemons keep, chilled, up to 1 year.
  • Reviews

  • “this is it!!! my husband has been requesting it for some time now and finally i have it. although the process takes a long time to preserve(not the labor) it is very easy to make. we will have this around the house always and give as gifts this holiday season. thanks mirj!!”

  • “This is a 5 star recipe not only based upon appearance and taste, but convenience! The lemon pieces, chopped or whole, are suitable for addition to anything that might benefit by a bit of lemon. I leave the salt on, but reduce the over-all salt content until a taste test. Great on pasta with oil and garlic!!”

  • “I crammed 6 lemons (with salt) into a 24 ounce jar; it was completely filled and had no room for extra juice. (Since I had already juiced the other lemons, I made recipe #37966 instead.) When you cut the hot lemons, be prepared for a gush of steaming hot juice! You might want to work over a bowl so you can catch it. I used the more traditional cut-in-four-without-separating-the-pieces.”

  • “I made these a month or so ago, but wanted to make something w/them before I actually posted a review.I finally used them last night – I sauteed spinach w/olive oil, red bell pepper & garlic.I love them and have a feeling I’ll come up w/many more ideas to use them.”

  • “Recently I was the happy recipient of an abundance of home-grown lemons. Having had my fill of lemonaid, I perused recipes for different uses of this citrus fruit. Enamored by the use of perserved lemons, off to the kitchen I went. The appeal of this particular recipe was the first step of blanching. Even the residual lemon water produced aromatics. My 1 pint Mason jar filled to the brim brought much speculation from family members. Finally the day arrived to infuse a new ingredient into a dish. Firstly, I timidly sprinkled the chopped rind over a salad. Uuummm pretty darn good. What next? Slipping these slivers of gold along with garlic under chicken breast, I was hopeful. I, also, tucked the pulp under the chicken anticipating intense lemon flavoring. This one little ingredient produced a most unusual and scrumptious fare. Salty…lemony…and DIVINE!”

  • “Fantastic! I can’t compare this to any other recipe for preserved lemons since I’ve never had or made them before. But if you go by the number of people that I’ve recommended this to, then surely a 5 star recipe. I like to dip my knife into the juice and spread it on a tortilla with cream cheese.”

  • “I made this recipe a couple of months ago & forgot to rate it due to the waiting process.So easy.I quartered the lemons & didn’t worry about the seeds.I have used these lemons in a tagine,, also with cheese & olives, a few days ago used them on a rack of lamb instead of lemon juice.If you like a lemony flavour, you will love these!Thanks Mirj for another top recipe…”

  • “I wasn’t to sure about this whole process.Then I used it in Recipe #233013 in place of the zest and WOW!What a presence!I can hardly wait to use it again.Thnx for sharing your recipe, Mirj.”

  • “This is so much morepractical then the usual method………..and you wouldn’t tell the difference!!! Thanks”

  • “Fantastic recipe.I use this all the time, it’s so easy, and always works!”

  • “I made a mistake halving the recipe – didin’t know what to expect. It is absolutely fantastic and easy to make. Pasta, sandwich or salad – it goes well with anything. Thanks for posting.”

  • “I love these!!! My family loves them and they are our standard now. A bit of cheese one of these lemon slices and a slice of dense bread and your in heaven. Thank you sooo much Mirj. As always you posted another winner. I also used your processing for all the other recipes I tried and it is soooo simple and fast.Other uses, tuna, humus, any fish or chicken dish is great using these.”

  • “These were great.I had never tasted them before.Lemons are sooooo expensive right now that I harvested my Myers lemons and made the receipt from them.Really good.Made the Moroccan chicken with preserved lemons last night and it was to die for.Thank you.”

  • “I don’t know whether to rate 4 or 5 stars, as I have no previous experience with preserved lemons and don’t know how they are expected to come out. But these were very easy and quick (compared to the traditional recipes). I tagged Recipe #185976 in Zaar Tag and didn’t have 30-60 days to wait for a traditional recipe, so this one looked good and quicker. I blanched my lemons for 7 or 8 minutes, which was probably longer than necessary. The skins were quite soft after that. Also, I didn’t have enough coarse salt, (only about 1/2 cup), so I supplemented with fine sea salt, and perhaps this made mine saltier than they would have been without? When I cut the 8 wedges, the lemon flesh was quite soft and I had to be careful in handling them lemons. I would be interested to retry this cutting into only 6 wedges. When I made the kebabs I rinsed the lemons and left the flesh inside. We had a friend over for dinner that night and he said they tasted good (and asked what they were). I’m looking forward to trying the rest of the jar in other recipes (I’ll have to look for some). At some point I guess I will make a more traditional preserved lemon recipe for comparison. Thanks for this quickie recipe. It really worked out great for our kebab dinner!”

  • “These are wonderful, just perfect!! It is always very difficult to fínd preserved lemons here in Germany, but now I can make my own and do not have to wait for ages until I can eat them! I had to add some hot water to cover the lemons, couldn’t get that much juice from my lemons, but they are still fine! Thank you so much for this easy recipe!”

  • “I chose this recipe, so that I could make your Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemon’s.I just opened a jar and started the chicken dish. Of coarse, I had to taste the lemon’s on their own and Ihave to say I was very pleased.These would be wonderful as a condiment with dish, LIke instead of pickles or olives, just eat these along side the meal. These are really good. Very easy to make.I’ll let’cha know how we like your chicken dish, after dinner. Thanks Mirj, for a really tasty recipe.”

  • “I chose this recipe because I was hosting a Moroccan dinner and I was short on time for any of the traditional preserved lemon recipes. I am glad I did. This was so simple and yet so flavourful. I used about half of them in a tagine recipe and the rest are still in the fridge. I can’t wait to try them in other recipes. Thanks Mirj!”

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