Lemons — season, tips, and recipes in New Zealand
Lemons is a fruit available in New Zealand during April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January, peaking in June, July, August. This page is a practical guide for home cooks: when to buy lemons, how to pick a good one, how to store it, what it goes well with, three original recipes, and detailed nutrition information.
Meyer lemons are the most popular NZ variety: sweeter and less acidic than commercial lemons, with thin edible skin. Almost every NZ garden has one.
How to pick a good one
Heavy for its size means juicy. Smooth thin skin = more juice. A little green is fine, they're still ripe.
How to store it
Room temperature for a week, fridge for a month. Juice and freeze in ice cube trays for year-round use.
Goes well with
fish: Lemon juice partially denatures the proteins on fish's surface, which is the same process as cooking. In ceviche this is the only cooking method. On cooked fish, acid cuts the fat and lifts the whole thing without adding a competing flavour.
garlic: Both are sharp and aggressive alone. Together they moderate each other: lemon's acid makes garlic's pungency smell cleaner, garlic's savouriness rounds off lemon's sharpness. The combination is the base of more dishes than you'd think.
honey: Honey without acid is cloying. Lemon without sweetness is one-dimensional. The right ratio of the two produces something that tastes better than either. Hot water with lemon and honey works as a cold remedy partly because it's genuinely pleasant to drink.
olive oil: Acid in lemon juice stabilises oil in an emulsion and brightens the oil's grassy, vegetal notes. A squeeze of lemon makes every olive oil dish taste more like olive oil.
butter: Lemon cuts butter's heaviness and makes cream sauces feel lighter than they are. Beurre blanc exists because of this effect. Squeeze lemon on anything butter-cooked and it tastes finished.
ginger: Both are sharp and have high-contrast flavour profiles. Ginger adds a warm, peppery heat; lemon adds cold, bright acid. The combination covers a wider flavour spectrum than most.
Recipes
Lemon Pasta
Pasta, lemon, parmesan. 15 minutes.
Ingredients: 300g spaghetti, 2 lemons (zest and juice), 50g parmesan, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp butter, black pepper
Method: Cook pasta. Reserve a cup of pasta water. Toss hot pasta with butter, oil, lemon zest, half the juice, and parmesan. Add pasta water until silky. Season. More lemon juice to taste.
Lemon & Honey Dressing
The only salad dressing you need.
Ingredients: 1 lemon (juice), 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, pinch salt
Method: Whisk everything in a jar. Shake before using. Keeps in the fridge for a week.
Preserved Lemons (Quick Version)
Ready in a week. Transforms everything.
Ingredients: 4 lemons, 4 tbsp salt, 1 bay leaf, extra lemon juice
Method: Quarter lemons almost through (keep base attached). Pack salt inside each. Pack tightly into a clean jar. Add bay leaf. Top up with extra lemon juice until submerged. Seal. Leave at room temp for 7 days, shaking daily.
Nutrition
One lemon provides 50% of your daily vitamin C. The juice is about 5% citric acid, which aids iron absorption from other foods. Contains limonene in the zest, a compound studied for anti-cancer properties. Almost zero calories. Squeeze lemon on your spinach and you'll absorb significantly more iron from it.