10 clever ways to use lemon peel

Tired of not making the most of lemons when they’re in season? Here are just 10 ways you can put lemon peel to good use after you’ve used all or most of the juice.

1. In your cooking

While this is the most obvious use, this delicious ingredient is neglected surprisingly often! Whether grated into a cake, risotto or stew, it’s hard to go past a great zesty flavour. You can even simply add twists of leftover lemon peel to the baking tray when roasting vegetables, chicken or fish.

2. As a liquid cleaner

Add some lemon peel with white vinegar and seal it in a jar for a few weeks and let it brew away. Then drain the liquid and mix the lemon-cum-vinegar concoction with water (about equal halves) and use as an all-purpose cleaner.

3. In ice cubes

This is a great tip coming into summer, when we’ll all be adding more ice cubes to our drinks to keep them cold. Just finely peel some of the outer skin off in a narrow strip (a small spiral looks great) and pop it in your ice tray before you fill it with water. Avoid the white inside pith because it is bitter.

4. An anti-ant device

Ants hate lemon peel, so if you have an ant issue at your place just scatter the odd bit of lemon peel where they like to venture. And, hey presto – no more ants.

5. As aody scrub

You can make your own lemon and sugar body scrub by mixing a little sugar with some finely chopped lemon peel and some olive olive into a paste consistency. Apply when you are wet in the shower and wash off after you have enjoyed a good scrub.

6. As a chrome or metal cleaner

The leftover skin makes a great chrome cleaner. Just rub it on taps or a kettle and then polish off with a soft cloth.

7. To help fade age spots

Lemon is a natural skin whitener so rubbing the peel on age spots and uneven skin tone can help whiten them and make your skin look more even.

8. As an air freshener

Throw your leftover lemon peel  in the kitchen garbage bin to disguise other odours.

9. As a fire starter

The leftover skins burn really well, and make for surprisingly great kindling – though you’ll have to let them dry out for a few days first.

10. As a lawn freshener

Some people who have dogs swear by them as an outside “air freshener”.  Just toss some peel on the lawn, on a smelly section that needs a freshen up and mow away.

Do you swear by lemon peel too? Are there any other uses you have discovered?