If you’ve ever reached for preserved lemons needed in a recipe and found the jar uninvitingly old and mouldy, this is the fix. One lemon, three ingredients, twenty minutes — and you have a small jar of intensely flavoured paste that works anywhere you need a salty, lemony hit without adding liquid. It keeps in the fridge under a slick of olive oil, and when it runs out it’s easy enough to make another batch, even mid-winter, from lemons you’ve stashed in the freezer.

The method comes from Yotam Ottolenghi, and it’s become a permanent fixture in our fridge. Use it the way you’d use preserved lemons — in dressings, stirred through yoghurt, rubbed under chicken skin, spooned into hummus or tabbouleh, or anywhere a dish needs a sharp, savoury citrus lift. It’s potent, so start small.

PRESERVED LEMON PASTE – THE QUICK WAY

Ingredients

  • 1 large lemon (or lime), ends trimmed, sliced 5mm thick, seeds removed
  • 60ml lemon juice (fresh or from frozen lemons)
  • 1 tablespoon (20g) fine salt
  • Olive oil, to cover

Method

  1. Place the lemon slices and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for about 12 minutes, until the rind looks translucent and has softened.
  2. Set aside to cool slightly, then transfer the lemon slices and all the juice to a food processor or blender or use a stick mixer in a tall jug. Add the salt and blitz until smooth. Add a tablespoon of water if needed to reach a thick, spreadable consistency.
  3. Spoon into a small sterilised jar, pressing the paste down to remove air pockets. Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the surface, seal and refrigerate.

Notes

This recipe makes one small jar — roughly the right amount to use before it loses its freshness. When it runs out, it takes less than twenty minutes to make another batch, so there’s no need to scale up. Frozen lemons work perfectly here, making this genuinely year-round.

Use it wherever you’d use preserved lemons: stirred through yoghurt or labneh, rubbed under chicken skin before roasting, whisked into a dressing, folded through hummus or tabbouleh, or spooned over roasted vegetables. It’s quite potent — a teaspoon is usually enough to lift a dish.

Store in the fridge with the olive oil layer maintained. Use within a few months.

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