Orange and Lemon Salt

This orange lemon salt blend is a bright and flavorful salt blend that will bring your roast chicken, salad, avocado toast or any meals to life with it’s vibrant salty citrus flavor!

I am not a fan of winter. I don’t like being cold and I don’t like the short days. Luckily, I live in San Diego where we complain how cold we are when the temperature drops below 60ºF, or for me below 70ºF. This is the time of the where I count down ’til spring.

One redeeming quality of the winter months is that it is citrus season! It’s God’s way of bringing some sunshine during these dark and gloomy cold months. Ok, some of you really are in freezing temps. Luckily us southern states are growing oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruits for us all to enjoy!

Why this recipe is so awesome!

Have you ever visited one of those spice shops? Several years ago I walked into the Spice and Tea Exchange in Orlando, Florida. It was also an olive oil shop and the owners were buying my olive oil cookbook to sell in their store.

I sampled many delicious things that tantalized all of my senses. And one thing I came home with was their Florida Sunshine salt blend. It’s a citrus infused salt with other delicious spices.

I brought it home with me and used it on everything: my morning eggs, my salads and even over a plain avocado.

When a Spice and Tea Exchange opened up in San Diego, I was delighted to see my favorite salt in their store. And now that it is almost empty, I decided to make my own version of my favorite orange and lemon salt mix.

Their website says that their Florida sunshine salt blend is made with orange zest, lemon zest, lime zest, green peppercorns, ginger and roses petals. It is sold in a grinder and when you grind the salt, all the flavors are ground together. So this meant to me that all of the ingredients had to completely dry before passed through a grinder.

I love making oven dried lemons this time of year to preserve my favorite citrus fruits, so I thought they would be the perfect source of my citrus flavor. Once dried, I chopped them into small little bits and added them to the mix.

Ingredients you need

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• Coarse sea salt: You can also use other coarse salt varieties, like pink salt.
• Assorted dried citrus: I used a combination of dried orange, blood orange, lemon and lime slices. You can keep it simple with just one variety or you can mix it up as you like. You can make it yourself (I have full instructions here on how to oven dry lemon slices.) or buy it.
• Freeze dried ginger: This adds some ZING to the blend! Use freeze dried or dehydrated ginger NOT crystalized ginger. Crystalized ginger is made with sugar and will make your salt blend sweet. If you cannot find dried ginger, you can add ¼ to ½ teaspoon of powdered ginger, depending on how much ginger flavor you want in your salt mix.
• Green peppercorns: This is the unripe peppercorn and it has a fruity and mild peppery flavor. You can also use pink peppercorns or regular black varieties.
• Dried rose petals: Rose petals offers color and very mild aroma. Rosewater, offers more aroma.

Tools to Use

• Chef’s Knife
• Cutting board
• Mixing bowls

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Step-by-step directions

Finely chop citrus slices and put in a small bowl. Add sea salt, ginger, peppercorns and crushed rose petals and stir to combine. Store in an air tight bottle and let ingredients infuse their flavors together until ready to use, using a salt grinder.

What are green peppercorns?

So what’s the deal with green peppercorns? Honestly I didn’t know peppercorns existed until I learned that they are just unripe peppercorns. Duh. Have you ever seen a pepper tree with the beautiful strands of pepper hanging down? 

Pepper trees might make a mess, but the really are beautiful trees, in my opinion. If you don’t have a pepper tree to snap some unripe peppercorns, don’t fret. You can find green peppercorns in the store or online. 

So what are the differences between all these peppercorns? Here is low down:

• Black peppercorns – the most common variety. The dried fruit of a flowering pepper vine that are sometimes cooked. Has a strong pungent flavor.
• White peppercorns – black peppercorns that are soaked in water to remove the outer skin. They taste the same as black peppercorns, but less pungent.
• Pink peppercorns – taste similar to the black peppercorn, but is a little more mild with a touch of sweetness.
• Green peppercorns – the unripe peppercorn that has a fruity and mild peppery flavor

If you cannot find green peppercorns then substitute with the pink ones, but a tad bit less of it. Unless you want more peppery flavor then by all means use as much as you want. The beauty of making your own salt blend is that you can customize it with your favorite flavors.

Expert tips and recipe FAQs

Some people may think that drying out your citrus slices is too much work. Honestly, it’s super easy and you don’t need a dehydrator. You simply slice up your oranges, lemons, limes or whatever citrus fruits into thin slices and dry them in the oven at a low temperature.

Again, I full instructions here on how to oven dry lemon slices.

You could use grated or chopped zest from the citrus fruits to make this citrus salt. But you do have to dry them out completely before using them in a salt grinder. Fresh zest is wet and it will plug up your grinder if you try to pass it through.

Also, you won’t have as much flavor as you would if you use dried fruits because the whole fruit is used and not just the zest. Seriously what’s not to love about dried citrus? Aren’t they beautiful?

I chose to use orange, lemon, lime and blood orange in my citrus salt blend. You can adjust the citrus flavor any way you want. If you want a more tart salt, add more lemon and less orange. Or just use a combination of lemon and lime. Highlight your own favorite citrus flavors.

How to use this lemon salt

So now you have this gorgeous and amazing orange lemon salt. What are you going to do with it? Well you can gift it to friends and family! Share the citrus love with everyone! Homemade gifts are always the best, in my opinion. 

But in terms of food, you might not know how to use this citrus salt. Well, it is perfect on everything – seriously! I would suggest using it as a finishing salt, at the end of cooking, but you can totally use it while you cook.

Try it on fish, chicken, steak, salads, sandwiches and eggs. We love eating cucumbers and tomatoes alone, so sprinkle it on your favorite fruits and vegetables and enjoy. This orange salt blend is incredible on avocados, too, whether by themselves or on avocado toast.

And if you like this citrus salt, try my other homemade seasonings. Grind up sea salt with saffron to make some golden and aromatic saffron salt. I also have a fabulous cowboy steak rub that is perfect for any cut of steak, pork ribs or even grilled chicken.

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Yield: 1 ½ cups citrus salt

Orange and Lemon Salt

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This orange and lemon salt blend is a bright and flavorful salt blend that will bring your roast chicken, salad, avocado toast or any meals to life with it's vibrant salty citrus flavor!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup coarse sea salt
• 1 large dried orange slice
• 1 dried lemon slice
• 1 dried lime slice
• 1 blood orange slice (optional)
• 1 TBS freeze dried ginger
• 1 TBS green pepper corns
• 1 teaspoon dried rose petals (1 small bud)

Instructions

1. Finely chop citrus slices and put in a small bowl.
2. Add sea salt, ginger, peppercorns and crushed rose petals and stir to combine.
3. Store in an air tight bottle and let ingredients infuse their flavors together until ready to use.
4. Use a salt grinder to grind whenever you want to add the orange lemon salt to your food.

Notes

You can use zest from the oranges, lemons and limes but the zest needs to completely dry as it will be too wet to pass through a salt grinder.

You can also adjust the citrus flavor to your liking. Add more lemons and less orange, if you prefer to make are more tart lemon salt.

The additional 4 hours added to the recipe is to allow for time to oven dry citrus in the oven, if you have any dried citrus on hand.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

72

Serving Size:

1 tsp
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 3Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1572mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 0g

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