BELAZU Preserved Lemons (200g)

A preserved lemon is a whole lemon cured in salt and brine until the rind softens and turns savoury. You use the rind rather than the flesh: lift a lemon out, rinse it, scrape the pulp away and chop or slice what is left into tagines, dressings, roast chicken and grain salads. These are small, thin-skinned Beldi lemons, 200g to a jar, and the ingredient list is three lines long: pickled lemons, water, salt.

The Belazu Preserved Lemons are an essential ingredient for any home chef who loves exploring Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine. These small, fine-skinned Beldi lemons are hand-sorted and graded for quality, ensuring that each lemon is perfectly preserved with its vibrant fragrance intact. Belazu’s commitment to excellence shines through in these preserved lemons, which won 3 Great Taste stars from the Guild of Fine Foods in 2012, an accolade awarded to fewer than 2% of entries, reflecting their exceptional quality and flavour.

Preserved lemons offer a unique, intense citrus flavour with a salty and slightly acidic edge that can elevate a wide variety of dishes. These lemons are pickled in brine, allowing the rind to soften and develop a complex, fragrant aroma that’s distinctively bold. Unlike fresh lemons, preserved lemons are used primarily for their rind, which can be finely chopped or sliced to add depth and brightness to any dish. They bring a touch of authenticity to Moroccan tagines, Middle Eastern stews, and other Mediterranean recipes.

These preserved lemons pair well with a variety of Belazu’s other Mediterranean-inspired ingredients. For example, try using them alongside the Tagine Paste in a traditional Moroccan tagine, where their salty, citrusy flavour complements the paste’s smoky paprika and spices. Alternatively, mix them with Smoked Chilli Harissa for a spicy and aromatic combination that adds complexity to your dishes.

Slice the rind thinly into grain salads built on couscous, quinoa or rice, or push it under the skin of a chicken before roasting. It sits well beside the rest of the Belazu shelf: Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil for dressings, and Pomegranate Molasses for the sweet and sour end of the same cooking.

What is a preserved lemon?

A lemon packed in salt and left until the salt draws the water out and the rind goes soft and translucent. The flavour is not sour the way a fresh lemon is. It is salty, slightly bitter and deeply citrus, and it holds up to long cooking in a way lemon juice does not.

Do you use the rind or the flesh?

The rind. Rinse the lemon, cut it open, scrape out and discard the soft pulp, then finely chop the peel. A quarter of a lemon is usually enough for a dish for four. If the recipe is a dressing or a dip, chop it more finely than feels necessary.

Where can I buy preserved lemons in Australia?

On this page. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post. We are an online stockist and cannot tell you what a given supermarket has on shelf this week.

What do you cook with preserved lemons?

Start with chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives or, if you want something quick, the green salad with preserved lemon dressing. There is a whole-fish version in barbecued whole snapper with preserved lemon marinade, and eight more uses in a jar of preserved lemons, and eight things to do with it. They also pair with the Belazu tagine paste, which already has preserved lemon in it.

How do you store preserved lemons once the jar is open?

Keep the jar refrigerated once it is open and make sure the remaining lemons stay under the brine. Unopened, the shelf life on the pack is twelve months. The pack carries a sulphites declaration.