You Must Freeze the Lemon Peel Juice
Lemons are one of the few – if not one of two – fruits with a rind that is just as valuable as their juicy pulp. Lemon zest is one of the quickest ways to add sun essence to a dish, but sometimes you don’t need the juice and zest at the same time, and those moments of out of sync can leave you with a whole bunch of lemon zest that you’re not ready to use up yet. Fortunately, they freeze perfectly.
I don’t know why it never crossed my mind – I love freezing things ( like ginger ) – but I’m glad someone else did . Reddit user ehp29 recently posted this tip to r / EatCheapAndHealthy, a subreddit dedicated to, you guessed it, cheap and healthy eating:
Sometimes I find that all I need for a dish is just a small hint of lemon zest, and I don’t want to go to the store for a whole lemon, which I’m only going to use a little.
So when I use fresh lemon juice for a dish, I put the leftover rind in the freezer and take out the rind to grate in chunks when I need it. Lemon zest does not affect the texture of the dish, so it doesn’t matter if it freezes well. The zest of one lemon can be used for multiple meals, so it doesn’t take up much freezer space.
The same will probably work for an orange or lime, I just think that lemon zest is the most common. I love it in baked goods and oatmeal.
This is a smart move for two reasons: one is obvious and the other is less obvious. The most obvious is that the freezer stops the clock from decomposing the lemon rind, allowing it to be used later when needed. The less obvious one is that grating lemon zest is annoying – they’re all soft and pliable – and freezing them strengthens a little, making the zest easier to digest. So the next time you make lemonade or any other dish or drink that requires a bunch of lemon juice, toss the peel into a freezer bag and toss it into an old ice box. In the future, you will be very glad you did.