I wrote earlier about life giving me lemons, and how that’s a GOOD thing. I love lemons! They are beautiful, taste great in and on so many things, and smell amazing. But sometimes, life (or your boss/friend/neighbor/tree) might give you something closer to 5 dozen lemons at a time.
And there’s only so much lemonade and hollandaise sauce you can make at once! So what do you do? Hopefully this little series will help you out in your quest to find out what to do with lemons when life gives them to you in quantity.
To kick off the series, let’s make Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoned Salt. I use lemon pepper on SO many things when I’m cooking, so it’s an obvious choice for me, and I know I’ll actually use it.
You will need:
- Lots of lemons
- A microplane grater or zesting tool of some sort
- Cracked peppercorns – I just used fresh-ground pepper from my mill
- An oven or dehydrator
- A coffee grinder or vita-mix
- Salt
- A good amount of time and patience, but maybe you move quicker than I do with a zester.
First, start off by making sure your lemons are quite clean. If you’ve gotten them from a source you trust (your tree, a farmer’s market, a friend’s tree), this probably just means wiping them with a sponge or cloth, and drying them off. If they’re from the grocery store and might have wax or pesticides or something on them, you’ll want to give them a good brush with a vegetable brush.
Then use a zester to remove the bright yellow outsides from the lemon. Hold the lemon still and move the zester, not the other way around – it will be easier this way; trust me. When you see white, move to another area – you don’t want the white stuff. That’s the pith and it’s bitter and not really lemon-flavored. It won’t add to your seasoning.
Tap the zest into a bowl and zest some more lemons. And zest and zest. (As you finish each one, you can cut it in half and give it to your husband to juice, but more on that later!) And when you cain’t zest no mo’…
Crack lots of black pepper into the bowl with the zest. Lots and lots, because the lemon zest is strong stuff. It can take it.
Mush it around with a fork so that the oils from the zest get all over the pepper, and the pepper rubs up on all that lovely zest too. It’s like a lemon pepper lovefest.
Once the lemon zest and the cracked pepper have mingled for a bit, spread them on some parchment paper in a thin layer on your dehydrator tray. Or on a cookie sheet if you’re using your oven.
I dried mine for several hours (5ish maybe?) at 135 degrees in my lovely new Excalibur dehydrator. If you’re using the oven, set the temperature as low as you can and leave the oven door cracked open a bit. You’ll want to check on it every now and then because the temperature will be a bit higher than what I used – you don’t want to cook it, just dry it out.
Once it’s all dry, put it in your coffee grinder or vita-mix.
And zoom it around for a while. (Or have your husband zoom it around so you can take a picture.)
I actually did it a bit more than this, because I saw big chunks of pepper, and I’m not a fan of big chunks of pepper.
Once it’s finely ground, dump it into a bowl…
And add an approximately equal amount of salt to the bowl.
Mix it up and you’ve got lemon pepper seasoned salt!
Store it in an airtight spice container or jar and use on chicken, fish, vegetables, or anywhere else you would normally pick up your McCormick’s commercially-made lemon pepper (which is delicious by the way). I don’t know about you, but I get an extra little kick out of cooking from TOTAL scratch now and then. It feels like cooking with love, straight from my heart.
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
Whenever I smoke fish, Lemon Pepper is always there. Never tried making it until now, and it tastes great. Thanks for the info
I pulled lemons off our tree, grated them, added the ground pepper, used reduced sodium salt and 1 tablespoon of butter and added the mixture to steamed broccoli….delicious!
I make my own lemon pepper seasoning and, over the years, have “enhanced” the basic recipe. Crack the peppercorns, don’t grind them. Add a 2-3 T. of olive oil (not EVOO) to a small, heavy-bottomed skillet or (small sauce pan )over med-low heat. Add several pieces (I used about 6-10 cloves!) of sliced garlic cloves to the oil and GENTLY saute for 3-5 minutes, just until the garlic starts to turn golden. (If you need to add more olive oil, go ahead.) Remove garlic. Now, add the cracked peppercorns and again, GENTLY saute for 8-10 minutes, at which time the oil should almost all be absorbed. Now the zest & pepper can be combined, spread on parchment & dried by whatever method you choose. At this point, I add a few tablespoons of the lemon/pepper mixture to a mortar, along with very small amounts (approx 1/8 – 1/4 tsp) of basil, parsley, garlic granules, coriander seed, onion flakes and Himalayan rock salt. Now I gently grind with the pestle. My preference is for a more coarse seasoning mix; I don’t want to pulverize anything! You kind of have to play with the amounts of everything but the lemon should be dominant. By sauteing the peppercorns in the garlic-infused oil, you get rid of the “bite” of the pepper but retain all the flavour! I know it sounds fussy & finicky but, trust me, the resulting product is worth it!! The mixture can be refrigerated for up to 3 months or thrown in the freezer for 6 months.
This is awesome…you totally make it look easy! And I'm so with you on the cooking totally from scratch…love it too.
This is awesome…you totally make it look easy! And I'm so with you on the cooking totally from scratch…love it too.
ok I'm going to try your lemeon pepper recipe today. Someone gav eme fresh lemons. I'm doing the oven route. We will see Not sure abouthe salt. Might omit that.!! Or use just a little bit!.
Emily,
I love this recipe, LOVE the photos…and I love your blog <3
That's awesome! I had once asked you if you made your own, and now you do!
Beautiful! That's such a great idea.
what a good idea…wish I had a lemon tree!
*smears some lemon pepper on my monitor, hoping it makes it easier for you to taste*
Thanks Hannah!
It really wasn't hard – just time consuming, that's all.
wow dude, this is awesome!!
no extra.
I zested for FOREVER and it made… not a whole lot once it was dehydrated and ground up. Sorry! But it's easy (if time consuming) so if you come across a pile of lemons you should do it!
That looks awesome. Got any extra you want to mail me?
What a great idea! I wish I could reach through this monitor and taste some…
Wow that looks awesome! Great pictures too
It really doesn't seem all that hard either, who knew?