Savory Lime Pepper and Lemon Salt

Difficulty Level: *Super Easy

Fragrant, fresh homemade flavoured salts and peppers are a great condiment to many foods and super easy to make. Use them on salads, grilled veggies, french fries, roasted potatoes, your favourite barbequed foods or my favourite – delicious curries. I was inspired to make lime pepper after having an amazing lime-pepper sauce in Cambodia.

Now you are probably thinking there is nothing local about the ingredients listed below. I’ve had a lot of discussions about this with a local organic farmer friend of mine. He believes that because using non-local spices and things like lemons and limes makes the ‘big items’ like veggies more appetizing (you are more likely to eat them) it is justifiable. A small amount of exotic spices and things like lemons and limes go a long way in terms of flavour.

What is important is that we purchase food items that can be grown locally from a local farmer rather than purchasing those items from a faraway place in a grocery store (especially when they are in season). So grab the food grater and let’s get going!

Materials:

-Hand grater
-Cutting board (I like those flexible plastic one for this task)
-Two bowls
-Casserole dish or something to dry the salt on
-Jars to store it in

-3 organic lemons
-3 tbls coarse sea salt

-3 organic limes
-2 tbs whole peppercorns

Directions:

1. Grate the lemons zest with a food grater (see pic) or slice pieces of the zest off using a sharp peeler and then grate them in a small food processor or grinder. The latter method is better if you are making a lot of zest. Do the same for the lime zest, keeping it separated from the lemon zest.

2. Mix the grated lemon zest with the salt. In a separate bowl mix the peppercorns with the lime zest.

3. The mixture will have to dry out a bit before being put into a jar. I leave mine spread out in a casserole dish for a couple of days. You can use a plate or metal pan instead. The lime seems to dry more quickly than the lemon.

4. Once dry place your lemon salt and lime pepper in separate jars. You can use your salt and pepper as they are or grind them up in a salt grinder and pepper grinder.

Dry herbs like rosemary and thyme work well with this project as well. You can also try adding dry hot Thai or cayenne peppers to the lime pepper. Some other salts you can try include lavender, sage, and/or basil.

Next week I will show you how to make sumac lemonade!! It is one of my favourite wild  drinks. You may never drink lemonade from lemons again! So start looking for sumac trees in your neighbourhood.