Whole Lemon Dressing

I may receive a commission if you purchase through links in this post.

Try this: a whole lemon (yes! peel and all), in a blender, with some olive oil.

Results: a creamy, tangy, lemony dressing with tons of uses.

Right now I’m just using it as salad dressing (add lots of fresh cracked black pepper) but can’t wait to try it with roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, potato salad, roasted asparagus, and even desserts.

I saw something like this in a Saveur magazine years ago. I can’t find the original recipe or what the use was, but do remember the idea of placing an entire lemon into the blender. And with all the latest research on the potential anti-cancer properties of citrus peels, I’m thinking about how to use the peel more in my cooking.

Claudia Roden did it with her famous orange cake. She boils 2 oranges and mixes the entire thing into her cake batter. I will blog my variation of her cake soon – it makes a great Pesach cake but you can find the recipe in her must-have book, The Book of Jewish Food.

But back to the lemon dressing. I have a recipe below you can use as a guideline but you will need to adjust it depending on the size of the lemon or how juicy it is.

Some variations I’m looking forward to trying: anchovies for a caesar salad dressing, a neutral oil and honey for desserts, yogurt, or oatmeal, adding ginger and turmeric for an asian flavor, and blending other citrus fruits like kumquats. The creaminess you get from blending the whole lemon really sets it up for tons of experimenting.

And I would love to hear about more of your uses for whole citrus, please share in the comments!

Click here to pin!