Oh Cripes, I'm a Vegan!

lemon
Posted by: horsecow on Buzznet

Just for today, I mean. In fact, I intend to smear my face with more duck fat tonight, and maybe even some bacon, so not to worry.
Anyway, I knocked a couple of Meyer lemons off the treelet yesterday. They were so ripe they practically jumped into my hands. What to do with perfect home-grown lemons?
Well, let's see: I had just simmered up a delicious pot of vegetable broth made with stems, peels, scrapings and salvages of items I didn't want to waste. I made too many jugs of it to freeze them all, so I had a container of fresh veggie broth to use up pronto.
And I had half a carton of leftover Chinese take-out rice. And a ripe avocado.
So I blended the avocado with a little broth until really smooth, and dumped it into a pot to heat up with the rice, the rest of the broth, and the juice of one beautiful, fragrant, juicy lemon (plus salt and pepper). Presto: Avocadolemono soup! Hold the egg. It was unctuous, slightly tart, chewy with bits of rice -- and a startling pistachio green. I'll spare you the photo.
However, I must show you what to do with the squeezed out rinds of home-grown Meyer lemons. Make preserved lemons!
You know whenever you see a recipe that calls for preserved lemon, it usually tells you to use the rind only, and to discard the pulp? And you ask yourself, "Then why did I waste all that juice and pulp to make this batch?" The solution is to just save the juicy bits of lemon rind and layer them in a jar with generous sprinkles of kosher salt. Let them sit around for a few hours to mingle and ooze, and then cover them with olive oil. A few more days, covered, on the countertop, and then into the fridge they go.
Meanwhile, let's all invite Chris Wallace to go happily poop on himself. No soup for you!