When life gives you lemons!

Welcome back to The Code of Style and this article about what to do “when life gives you lemons”!

Got some spare lemons lying around in your fridge and not sure what to do with them? Besides cutting them up and squeezing them over food (or putting them in soft drinks), there are many ways to consume lemons. Below are just a few creative ways to put those lemons to use in the kitchen. 

Make your own lemon preserve

Preserved lemons can be a great ingredient for adding to dressings, marinades, salads, stews and Middle Eastern dishes. You can easily make this preserved lemons recipe from home – it takes only ten minutes of hands-on time.  After this it’s a simple case of leaving it and letting it ‘preserve’ for one to two weeks. 

Turn it into a curd

You could also try turning your lemons into a curd. This can be made using lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and butter – simply mix the contents together until you reach the right texture and then remove the zest. Lemon curd can be incorporated into many desserts such as cake or tart or it can be spread on toast and scones. You can store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Brew your own lemonade

Another way to put those lemons to use could be to brew your own homemade lemonade. All you need is lemons, sugar and water to do this. Blend the ingredients in a food processor and then drain the contents through a sieve over a pan so that all the lemon chunks are filtered out leaving only the juice. You can then serve it up with ice and it’s ready to drink. Feel free to experiment with extra additional flavorings such as mint or ginger. 

Use it to marinade meat

Lemon can be combined with ingredients such as garlic to make a tasty marinade. You can check out one such recipe here. Lemon marinade can be perfect for adding a zing to chicken or giving a fish dish a citrusy boost. It can even be used with pork and lamb. 

Create your own lemon dressing

You could also turn your lemons into a dressing. This could be great for giving homemade salads an extra kick. By combining lemons, dijon mustard, black pepper and olive oil, you can create your own lemon vinaigrette. You may also be able to find other uses for it such as drizzling it over vegetables or potatoes. 

Make your own lemon ice cream/sorbet

Lemons can also be used to create homemade sorbet or ice cream. This can be a refreshing dessert for cleansing the palate after a meal or even between meals if you’re planning a fancy dinner party. The easiest way to do this is by using an ice cream machine, however you can make your own mixture using a pan and a blender. Sorbet requires only water, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest, while ice cream requires the addition of milk. You can also add in extra ingredients such as vanilla or a splash of vodka. 

Or you could follow the advice of this quote :

When life gives you lemons make grapefruit juice and leave the world wondering how you did it

I hope you enjoyed this post about “When life give you lemons” and don’t forget to have a look here for some of our other health and wellness posts.

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