Save Your Lemon Peels For A Robust Homemade Seasoning

If life gives you lemons, lemon juice will help you with that lemonade. But lemon peels are the gift that keeps on giving. They are the fragrant essential that your homemade seasoning needs. That's because lemon peels house the true essence of the citrus. No lemon curd, lemon bar, or lemon glazed pound cake is complete without the zest of a lemon peel. And lemon zest is equally useful in savory dishes.

A robust lemon pepper blend is the ultimate vessel to instill that bright pop of lemon — with an elegantly bitter finish — to everything from meat and seafood to vegetables and salad dressings. Incorporating lemon peels into your seasoning simply requires that you dry them out completely to concentrate their flavors and extend their shelf life.

You can use a dehydrator, oven, or air fryer to slowly dehydrate the peels at a low temperature between 180 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the peels have been dried, you can blitz them in a food processor to create granules, then blend those granules with peppercorns, salt, and other dried aromatics like garlic and onion powder. For an easier option, you can also add those ingredients to a pepper grinder, and then use the grinder to crank out your desired amount of seasoning.

You can use your dried lemon peels in lemon pepper seasoning, which is a well-known ingredient often added to chicken wings or a seafood sauté. It's also the perfect seasoning for vegetables like asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and umami-rich mushrooms. You can even stir it into a pot of wild rice or buttered pasta to bring complexity and brightness to an otherwise bland pot of grains.

Lemon peels pair well with plenty of other spices, herbs, and aromatics, so you don't have to limit yourself to just lemon pepper blends, either. Blend dried lemon peels with garlic powder and salt to create a fragrant and aromatic seasoning for creamy sauces or roasted potatoes. This seasoning blend would also taste delicious over corn on the cob or avocado toast. You can even add cayenne and paprika to your lemon pepper blend for an upgraded crawfish or seafood boil.

Herbs of any kind and lemon are a match made in heaven. A dried herb blend with lemon peel, oregano, basil, and thyme can be an all-purpose Italian seasoning to add to marinades, salad dressings, and creamy risottos. Additionally, lemon peel, tarragon, and sugar would be the perfect addition to a mayonnaise-based coleslaw dressing.