Big Lemon Flavour Before Your Tree Grows Lemons (Hint: Lemon Leaf Uses)
By Steven Biggs
Lemon Leaves are Packed with Citrusy Flavour
Here’s a delicious cooking idea that often flies under the radar: Add citrusy flavour to your cooking with lemon leaves.
Whether you have lemon trees outdoors, or are growing a potted lemon tree, even before you get fruit, you can pluck a lemon leaf to add a delicious lemon flavour to your cooking.
In the excerpt below from Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can’t, I share ideas for using lemon leaves, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
The Whole Bird…The Whole Lemon Plant
I’ve heard the term “the whole bird” used in nose-to-tail cooking classes that teach people how to minimize waste in the kitchen. When it comes to lemons, I encourage you to use “the whole plant”!
Leaves
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When you crush a lemon leaf in your hands you will understand why they are useful in the kitchen. They give off a scrumptiously citrusy fragrance. I’d say the smell is lemon-like but not quite the same as the rind of the fruit, maybe a bit more “green.”
I had grown lemons for years before I realized that you can use the leaves in cooking. My friends Ashok and Marlene came back from Italy raving about meat wrapped and grilled in lemon leaves. They described removing the charred leaf, which kept the meat inside succulent while imbuing it with fragrance and flavour.
It didn’t take me long to try lemon leaves in my kitchen! As I read more about cooking with lemon leaves I learned that there is a long tradition of using them, and not just in Italy when grilling meats.
For example, they are often used in South African bobotie meat pies or for roasting pork in Greek cuisine. I recently stumbled on a recipe for a lemon-leaf soda that I’m eager to try. If you’re creative in the kitchen, you’ll love lemon leaves.
You don’t eat the leaves — they are tough and bitter. Use them as you would bay leaves. They add a bright citrus flavour. Here are more ways you can use lemon leaves:
When I roast a chicken or turkey, I’ll often put a couple of lemon leaves in the cavity, along with other ingredients that provide flavour as the bird roasts, such as garlic cloves, bay leaves, and rosemary.
Try wrapping large leaves around a kebab before you grill it. The leaves hold in some moisture, while imparting a delicate lemon flavour.
If you have only small lemon leaves that are not big enough to wrap around a kebab but still want to use them to flavour the kebab, thread some on the skewer, in between the pieces of meat.
I often include a fresh bay leaf when I cook up a batch of custard. Substitute a lemon leaf for a delicious variation.
While writing this, I was braising beef in the slow cooker in ale, with a lemon leaf for added flavour.
Zest
Dried lemon zest, so I can enjoy zest from my homegrown potted lemon trees year-round.
I think it’s a sin to use a lemon without first zesting it. The zest is the outer yellow part of the rind — and it’s the part with the most flavour. It adds a complexity to many dishes. Use lemon zest in marinades, add it to the butter that you rub on a chicken before roasting, fold it into plain cake batter — there are countless applications. Lemon zest works well in both sweet and savoury dishes.
To zest a lemon, use a fine-toothed grater or kitchen rasp (like a Microplane). I’ve also seen people peel the white pith, which can be bitter, off the inside of the rind, leaving just the rind, and then thinly slicing it.
The taste of the zest can vary greatly between citrus plants. One day I came home with sweet limes that I found at the grocer, and they were vastly different from any citrus zest I’d come across before. The Ponderosa zest and Meyer lemon zest are very distinct from the zest of more conventional lemons. I would describe Meyer lemon zest as milder, yet quite distinct, with some hints of orange. But it really is its own flavour. I find that Ponderosa lemon has some lime-like notes.
Juice
Use lemon juice to enliven fruit salads, when roasting and stewing meat, and to liven up bland food.
Most people use lemons for the juice, so it goes without saying that you shouldn’t waste it. I love to use lemon juice to enliven fruit salads, when roasting and stewing meat, and, in general, to liven up bland food (especially those nights when you can’t quite get the balance of the curry right).
Try combining lemon zest and juice with butter, and then pouring it over steamed broccoli or cauliflower. It’s quick and simple — and absolutely delicious.
Another great use for lemon juice is in homemade salad dressings. Substitute some (or all of) the vinegar with lemon juice — don’t forget to add some zest, too!
Seeds and Membrane
If you’re making lemon marmalade, don’t throw out the seeds…they’re full of pectin!
My wife Shelley and I once took a fantastic marmalade-making workshop with Elizabeth Baird, a well-known Canadian food writer. Elizabeth’s Seville orange marmalade recipe included a couple of lemons.
The surprise for me was that the marmalade includes the seeds in addition to the rind and juice. The seeds are not for eating: they are cooked (along with the inner membranes from the juiced fruits) in a cheesecloth pouch. They’re included because they contain a lot of pectin — the stuff that causes jams and jellies to thicken. When the cooking is done, the cheesecloth pouch with the seeds is removed and discarded.
Lemon Recipes
Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can’t is primarily a book about growing lemons, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t include some recipes for you to try with your crop of lemons — especially when some pretty wonderful Canadian cooks were kind enough to contribute some favourites. I’ve also included three of my family’s go-to lemon recipes.
Here are the delicious recipes included in the book:
Pat Crocker’s Citrus Salt
Tonia Wilson’s Lemon and Parmesan Roasted Chickpeas
Voula Halliday’s Chicken Ball Avgolemono
Steve’s Lemon Pepper Chicken Marinade
Biggs Kids’ Favourite Cranberry Lemon Muffins
Liz Pearson’s Wild Blueberry Lemon Muffins
Brad Long’s Lemon Malpua
Verna Duncan’s Lemon Bars
Danielle French’s Perfect Citrus Cake
Looking for More Lemon Ideas?
For more recipes and information about growing potted lemon trees in cold climates, go to the Lemon Home Page.
How to Grow a Potted Lemon Tree (That Actually Fruits!)
If you want to grow a potted lemon tree (that actually fruits) in a cold climate, below are a couple more resources to help you on your journey. I grow lemons and other citrus here, in Toronto, Canada. (My oldest potted lemon tree is from 1967!)
