Okay, I’ve got a quick tip for you today that I hope will as life changing for you as it was for me. Here it is: you can freeze whole citrus. Say whaaaaa? If you’re already privy to the magic that happens when you cook with fresh citrus, but hate paying a dollar or more for just one lemon, this tip may just change your game. If you’re sitting here thinking, “Why on earth would I want to freeze whole citrus fruit??” read on and allow me to explain…
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Why Cook with Fresh Citrus?
Between bottled juice and freeze dried citrus peels, there are a lot of ways to add citrus flavor to your food, but none compare to fresh juice and zest. It’s just a whole different beast when fresh. Cooking with fresh citrus is a total game changer and will take any meal up about ten notches. Sure, I will sometimes still use bottled juice when it’s a more secondary ingredient, or just needed to act as an acid in a chemical reaction, but when I’m making a recipe where lemon or lime is the star of the show, fresh is an absolute must.
Here are some of my favorite recipes that feature the awesomeness of fresh citrus:
- Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet
- Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Galette
- Lemon Butter Green Beans
- Lemony Cucumber Couscous Salad
- Lime Crema
- Cilantro Lime Chicken Drumsticks
- Mexican Red Lentil Stew
- Easy Orange Chicken
- Simple Cranberry Sauce
Freezer to the Rescue!
The problem is that buying a single lemon or lime can be super pricey. They’re quite a bit less expensive when you buy them by the bag, but I can never seem to go through an entire bag before they shrivel and die. UNTIL, that is, I learned that you can freeze whole citrus fruit. So go ahead and buy a whole bag without worry. Use one or two now, stash the rest in your freezer, and use them as needed.
Frozen lemons and limes are almost easier to zest, and once thawed they’ll release their juice more readily because, as with any fruit or vegetable, freezing and thawing weakens the cell walls. You can thaw the fruit quickly with a brief 15-20 seconds in the microwave, or by running under warm water for a few seconds. Always zest before you thaw because once the fruit is soft post-thawing, zesting can be difficult.
Must the Citrus be Frozen Whole?
Nope, you can totally cut or slice the citrus fruit before freezing, or even just freeze your unused leftover peels on their own, but I prefer to freeze the fruit whole. Why? Because I usually use a combination of the juice and the zest in my recipes for extra citrusy flavor, and they are much easier to zest when whole (and frozen solid). Plus, keeping them whole protects the insides from drying out as quickly. Natural protection!
The Method:
- Wash and dry your fruit to remove any waxy coating. While the waxy coating will actually help protect them in the freezer, you don’t want to have to worry about the waxes later if you plan on zesting your fruit straight from the freezer.
- Place the whole citrus fruit in a heavy duty freezer bag and seal it up tight. Air exposure is the enemy when it comes to freezing food because it sucks out moisture and deadens flavors.
- Freeze the citrus. There is no exact cut off date for how long the citrus will last in your freezer. Instead, they will just slowly dry over time. Over a long time. Like months. If and when the peel begins to dry out, the zest may not be as flavorful, but the juice inside will still be quite usable. That being said, I usually try to use up my frozen foods within three months to ensure optimum quality.
- To use the frozen fruit, remove it from the freezer bag and zest the fruit while frozen solid. Once zested, thaw the fruit through by either microwaving for 15-20 seconds, or running it under warm water. Once thawed, slice in half and squeeze the juice as usual. The juice should flow from the citrus quite easily.
And that’s it! I hope you get as much use (and FLAVOR) from citrus as possible in the future, without having to pay a premium. :)
Thank you so very much!! Have been saying that for years & now I found your site saying what I was thinking/wanted to do to NOT loose ANY LEMON/LIME! Now I will be able to show your site as a proof!
Thank you. My parents grew up poor so I know better than to waste food. My younger daughter is spoilt & isn’t anything like me or her Father.
Thank you for this!! Now I hopefully will not waste as much!
This is a fantastic idea.
Thank you.
What wonderful news! Thank you, thank you!
Finally! Something that isn’t going to flood my email but will still give me the info I want! Love it!
Why has no one ever told me this before?
Thank you. I’ve frozen bananas for years but it never occurred to me to freeze citrus. My neighbor has a tree and gives me as many as I want.
I usually freeze d lemon juice, calamansi nd other fruit juices nd never thought that I could freeze them whole..amazing!
does this work with oranges too?
Yes, just remember that they’ll be soft after freezing/thawing, so they’ll be good for zesting and juicing but not slicing. :)
What a great idea. I’ve thrown away a few limes and always regret it. Thank you.
WOW! This is a great tip! I don’t know how many lemons and limes that have gone bad in my fridge, but it is a ton of them…maybe 2 tons. Now I need to make space in my freezer for them. Love your blog and recipes! You are a real helper in my kitchen. Thanks and be blessed.
This is GREAT NEWS!!! I will definitely be doing just this from now on. Lord knows how much citrus I’ve lost to the fruit bin! Key limes are especially vulnerable to quick rot. I can’t wait to start putting this to good use. Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing this great tip, which will help me save money and time shopping for more! And by reducing waste I’ll be helping our environment!
Great tip – thanks! No more zombie citrus in my fridge!
I am thrilled with this and can’t wait to try it
Love this tip about freezing citrus !!!
Thank you !
I always froze my Lemons but found that when thawed they were quite soft & soggy and difficult to juice. Any tips for making juicing easier? Great tip to zest while still frozen..! I hadn’t thought of that, so simple.
Hmm, I don’t think I have any tips there, as I actually find the softness makes them *easier* to juice. :)
So grateful for this tip. Who wants to waste Meyer lemons, ever?
Haha, this was my exact thought! I got a handful of gorgeous Meyer lemons in my CSA box this week, and I don’t have any immediate plans for them, but to let them go to waste would be a terrible shame.
Here’s something I learned when I needed a lemon and did not have have one. I was making a red sauce for some seafood which really requires lemon. So I tried this.. I got out a jar of capers washed and dried them then chopped and smashed them on The Cutting Board and added them to ketchup or tomato puree, a little bit of Worcester sauce and a nice amount of horseradish. It was the best red sauce for shrimp I ever made. And really pretty . Whereas before the lemon juice always made the red sauce a little watery this actually thickens it with all these little pieces and stuck to the shrimp and fish better. I haven’t used lemon in red sauce since I did that. I love Capers in chicken piccata etc those type of things so I knew they had a lemony taste. Capers are shelf-stable for so long and then refrigerated they last forever. I live alone and this solved so many of my needs in such an inexpensive way just thought I’d pass it on. Great and many other things like tartar sauce Etc
Can halo oranges be frozen. I buy in a bag as I do lemons and I do those
Their skins aren’t as thick, but yes they can!
Thank you for the tip, its great ,now I know that my tree when its full usually winter, I can have them right through summer. Thanks again.
This was very helpful, thank you do you have any suggestions for fruit like mangoes?
I like to cube up the fruit then put it onto a lined baking sheet until it freezes. Then I’ll put it in a freezer safe bag.
Thank u so much i have always hated throwing out my demolished lemons . Ready to go out and buy my 6 or 7 lemons . Gayle
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This article was great! I loved the detailed instructions!! Thank you!
Thank you! Who knew this was possible!
Thanks for the tip. I have two kinds of lemon trees that produce an amazing amount of fruit. I’ll be storing some for the little gap that occurs between seasons.
Can’t wait to try this… we love lemon, but the last few from the bag I buy always seem to go bad!! Thank you!!
This is great to know, whenever I buy a bag I never seem to get through them all before they start to go bad just like you said! I will now purchase a bag of lemons with confidence, knowing I can freeze the majority.
Exactly!
:-O AMAZING!! I freeze a ton of stuff already (cheese, bread, butter, baked goods, cooked beans & pastas/rice, chopped onions, garlic) but never thought about citrus! Totally doing this next time we get groceries.
Good for you Brittany!
We just had to throw away a few lemons recently, I’m so glad I saw this post! I hate to waste and this will allow us to still be able buy them cheaper in bulk but not have to throw any away! Thanks Beth!!
Great Tip! I use limes in my guacamole which I make often. Now I can buy limes when the price is low. And get zest more easily, too. Thank you SO much.
You are a freaking genius! My new plan versus having them get moldy and throwing them out!
Any reason this wouldn’t work with oranges? I’m about to have several bags of ripe, straight-from-the-tree oranges in my. possession, and I’d love to stash a few away for later use!
It definitely should! Just keep in mind that they won’t be good for peeling and eating because they break down and get soft, but they’d still be great for juicing and zesting. :)
Beth, that is an awesome tip! I have wasted so much citrus over the years and this never would have occurred to me in a million years. This is great, thanks!
As a side note, many of your recipes have gone into our regular rotation over the years. It’s pretty rare that a week goes by without using one or two of them (Dragon Noodles are a particular favorite.) Your creations are inexpensive and completely delicious. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this website, we really appreciate you. :)
Thank you, Janet!!
This is genius. I so often waste food, including citrus that goes bad before I can use it all up. Bags of Meyer lemons ahoy! Thanks su much, yet again.
Great idea. Thanks.
Super lemon-aid tip, Beth!
As someone who despises food waste, I’m still angry at myself for the beautiful bag of Meyer lemons that spoiled before I could use them up a few months ago. But that will not happen again, thanks to you.
Budget Bytes is a continual source of scientific information, responsible frugality, and pure gastronomic delight.
And with great usability & aesthetics to boot!
Thanks so much for your wonderful website (and app).
Thank you, Kara!!
Thank you from someone with ripe limes and Meyer lemons on my back yard trees
Another tip I got from Mother Earth News on reducing food waste is to freeze lemons and limes that you have already squeezed or zested. They still have flavor and can be used at a later time for stuffing chickens or turkeys. Or boil them on the stove with water, whole clove, and cinnamon stick for a quick and chemical free kitchen air freshener.
That’s such a great tip!!
Does anyone know a good, reusable alternative to disposable freezer bags?
Alternative to freezer bags:
+ Steel Latching Containers
+ Tupperware
+ Glass Storage with Stainless Steel or Rubber Lids
+ Silicon Storage Bags (The closest alternative to actual plastic storage bags.)
http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-reusable-eco-friendly-food-storage-bags.html
I’m going to try this with my foodsaver bag.
I use wide mouth mason jars, bought a case of quart and pint ones and they work well.
This is excellent! Love citrus, hate wasting food. I’ve also been freezing mass quantities of peeled garlic.
Yay!! Soooo excited to find out about this. Once again you’ve saved the day!
Awesome tip. I can’t tell you how many limes and lemons have died because I forgot to use them.
I’ve got 2 lemons in the fridge that are old but look good. No time now to zest, juice, and freeze, which is the only thing I know, but now I know — THANK YOU — how easy it is to zest a frozen lemon and how juicy a thawed lemon is. This information is GOLD and I so much appreciate you sharing this!!
I have been freezing my whole lemons limes and oranges for years, and I use them frozen by grating them into my cooking food. The entire lemon and lime can be used that way and it gives the food an extra kick. With oranges I scoop the fruit out and just freeze the skins for the zest.
Freezing is a great idea. But have you checked out drying, pickling, candying, and canning. I use all those too. They are used different ways. But add yumminess. For example, dried peel without pith can make a nice chewy treat or garnish when dipped in choolate or diced fine and added to cookie or cake dough. Pickled citrus works nicely in meat dishes, candied citrus curls spiff up a cheese platter, and home canned orange or grapefruit sections can be sweetened or spiced to taste and opened to add to salads (or eaten straight from the jar if my kids get to them first. I’m sure you will come up with bettet uses than mine. If you have time, maybe check it out?
What a lifesaver (or shall I say budget-saver?)! Thanks so much for this tip, I’m still basking in the knowledge that you can freeze feta and now this, I’ll probably never throw away a brown lime again :)
Hello from British Columbia, Canada………..For years I have purchased bags of lemons as well, and this is another method to always have fresh lemon juice and zest on hand in the freezer………………………..I wash and dry them and then zest them…………my helper husband then extracts the juice with an electric juicer………..I put about a teaspoon of zest in each section of ice cube trays and then pour juice over it…………..they hold about 2 – 3 tablespoons in each section or you can adjust to what you mostly use..…………………when they are completely frozen, I release the cubes into a ziplock bag and return them to the freezer. When you need juice, you can thaw one or more cubes at room temperature or in seconds in the microwave, and if you don’t require zest you can strain it off. I find it really convenient to do it this way and it doesn’t take up much room in the freezer. This method also keeps the zest from drying out if you were to freeze it separately.
I have a bag of lemons in the fridge right now that I keep meaning to use. (I’ve only used one so far) Perfect timing on this tip.
Just in case, like me, your freezer space is scarce and precious, here’s an alternative: I buy a bunch of lemons and freeze the fresh-squeezed juice in ice trays. Standard trays usually hold very close to 1 TB. I also zest and freeze THAT in ice trays; the moisture in them freezes them into blocks. Since I need my ice trays (because I use this technique for everything from pureed chiles to extra tomatoes and sauces), I pop the frozen cubes into a plastic freezer bag and stick them in a plastic box in my freezer that I use only for prepped stuff. (That’s a lifesaver in itself.)
I know zesting can be tough, but here’s where I’ll note that a Microplaner is a great investment. Having used graters for years for zesting, I thought everything about Microplaners was hype. Got one as a gift and am I ever glad.
Thanks for the tip, Beth! And all the great, simple, budget-wise food and, as always, for your great writing and presentation.
A great tip, Beth!
This came at the perfect time! We just moved to the country so, trips to the grocery store are less frequent than they used to be and I was afraid we would need to get used to using bottled citrus juice.
As always Beth, you are a life saver. I have learned so much following you. Thanks for all your hard work!
What a spectacular idea!!!
I am so excited about this and am not sure why this never occurred to me but am very glad it occurred to you! Costco lemons and limes, look out – you are hitting my buggy.
Same!
Wow! I know a lot about food and I use my freezer A LOT, but this is a new one on my. My lemons usually last a fairly long time, but limes….. they’re often a disappointment by the time I get to them. Thanks for this.
I’m ridiculously excited about this! I LOVE Meyer Lemons, and the season for them is just around the corner. I can never manage to use the entire bag before they go bad, so this is a perfect solution.
Meyer Lemons are the best!!
Wonderful! Do you think you’d be able to slice lemons or limes into wedges (after freezing) to use for a garnish-squeeze on seafood?
They’re not quite as pretty after thawing, but they’re definitely nice and juicy and good for squeezing over food!
This a great news! I have a lemon tree, and I’m never able to use all my “crop” before it starts to go bad. I’ve been freezing the juice, but this will be a big time saver!
Oh I love this tip. Thanks!
Brilliant! Total game-changer.
What an amazing tip!! Thank you so much for sharing.
Love this tip! Thanks!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
I had no idea! I’m so glad you posted this. I always wondered who the heck would use a bagful of lemons or limes but I think I’m going to have to be that guy now. Which is great because I never have lemons when I really want to make a lemon dessert on a whim. Woot!
Thank you so much for this brilliant tip! Love it!
so lemon and limes, obviously. but plain ol’ oranges? A 10lb bag from Sam’s is WAY cheaper but we can usually only get through half the bag before it starts to mold. I know that seems like a dumb question…
I would only freeze fruit that you plan to cook with (zest and juice) rather than for peeling and eating. I think they’d probably be too soft to really eat on their own after freezing and thawing.
Hooray! I’m glad to know this. (Now, if I could just organize my freezer better to give me more room to try this out…)
How clever! I cook so many things that would be jazzed up with a squeeze of lemon or lime but hate having them turn into sad moldy rocks in the fridge.
WOW!! I didn’t know that you can freeze citrus and zest them while frozen, which makes it easier. I never knew that. Now, I can purchase a whole bag of citrus with confidence and freeze them. :-)
This is brilliant! I always freeze the “empty” citrus peels after juicing for a recipe, but this way makes soooo much more sense. No more sad and moldy lemons in the crisper.
Game changer!!!!!!
I hadn’t thought about doing this. Thanks for a great suggestion!