All About Lemons {Dehydrating}

Previously, we talked about freezing lemons and I showed you how I freeze enough lemons to last the year (don’t hate me).

Today we’re going to talk about dehydrating lemons.  One thing I didn’t tell you last week is that when I juice the lemons I usually zest the rind and then dehydrate it.  I really like to use the zest in Lemon Cranberry Biscuits.   I use the lemons from our tree and we don’t spray it at all. If you buy commerical lemons you’ll just need to use your best judgement as far as eating the peel goes.

Yum

I also dehydrate lemon slices.  Again, it’s really easy and it helps give you lemon flavor all year long.  I like to use the lemon slices in water, they rehydrate just fine and add a lemony flavor to the water.  I also like to grind some up in our extra coffee grinder to make a lemon powder. This is really good for adding just a bit of flavor to fish, veggies or even salad dressings.

You want fairly thin, fairly uniform slices.  I’d say mine are about 1/4″ thick.  I used a deli knife with a guard on it,  you could use a mandoline if you have one or just your regular knife, it doesn’t have to be super exact.

Dehydrate the slices on low or at 135 degrees for about 10 hours.

Here are two more things you can make with the lemon zest…lemon sugar and lemon salt.

Mix the zest of 1 lemon to about 1-1.5 cups of sugar.  Lay out on parchment paper and put in oven on a very low temp (150 degrees) for about 10 minutes.

For the salt, use 2 lemons to 1/2 cup of salt.  This is going to be great on fish…mmmmm…

So, what would you do with dehydrated lemons?

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