Lemon Recipes

The Best Lemon Recipes From LoveToKnow

Here are 69 great time-tested recipes you can cook today!

When Life Gives You Lemons…

You make lemonade! Or fish sauces, pies, cakes, cookies, marmalade, jelly, sherbets, or even lemon candy. Despite its popularity, however, most cooks don’t realize that lemons are actually a hybrid fruit originally cultivated from citron and mandarins centuries ago in Mediterranean Europe. Today, the fruit, juice, and rind are valuable additions to many different recipes throughout the world, with a distinctive sour taste and a healthy dose of vitamin C. Lemons are also frequently used as part of salad dressings (for a light dressing, use lemon juice alone!), meat marinades, canned fruit and jellies, and other recipe preparations.

Lemon Recipe Tips

Because of the fruit’s high concentration of citric acid and inherent sour flavor, preparing lemon recipes can be tricky in order to avoid unbalanced tastes. Depending on how the fruit is used, consider the following tips for using lemons:

• When zest (rind) is required, use only the colored part of the rind – the underskin, the white pith, is the most bitter.
• If fresh lemon juice is called for, roll and squeeze the fruit prior to slicing or peeling to break cells and release more juice.
• To sweeten the recipe with fewer added calories, consider using a sugar substitute, honey, or complimentary sweet fruit instead of sugar.
• Use lemon slices or wedges as a bright garnish for various dishes, including desserts, drinks, fish, or chicken.
• Strain fresh juice carefully through a fine filter to remove unwanted pulp, seeds, and bits of rind.
• When choosing fresh fruit, find specimens that are heavy (indicating more juice), even-colored, and with smooth, blemish-free skin.

Lemons are also part of recipes for non-edible products, such as potpourri, lotions, and soaps. Whatever the use, the sour taste of a lemon can easily lead to a sweet recipe.