Preserved Lemons (are awesome!) (Part 2)

I finally made a couple of dishes with my preserved lemons. I'm planning to make a Moroccan tagine with the lemons, but I ran across several easy and tasty-sounding recipes on Eating From the Ground Up and thought I'd try them out. 


Amazing! I am a huge fan! The lemons added incredible and unique flavor to both dishes. 


I made hummus, and roasted garlic and preserved lemon spaghetti tonight. The hummus was wonderful- though it was a bit salty- I think I need to soak the lemons in cold water to extract some of the salt from the preservation process before I toss them into a dish. 


To make the hummus, I chopped the lemons (which were soft, but not slimy, and tasted brine-y and lemony and not at all bitter) and threw them in a food processor with a can of garbanzo beans, about 1/3 cup tahini, two cloves of roasted garlic and a clove of fresh garlic, a healthy dash of cayenne pepper and olive oil. Usually I add a lot of fresh lemon juice to my hummus, but the preserved lemon flavor was MUCH better... more mature in a way? It definitely added a deeper flavor- less tangy and acidic than just lemon juice.


(Please excuse the horrible photos- Nathan's iPhone was with him all day and clearly my photography suffered.) 

The pasta dish was also delicious. I added a heap of pan-roasted broccoli to the recipe (I like to toss dry broccoli florets on a very hot cast iron skillet until they develop dark brown bits- the dark, roasted, cruciferous-vegetable flavor balanced this dish out well!). It was a simple recipe to make- I sauteed a head of roasted garlic with 3/4 of a preserved lemon (finely diced) in butter and olive oil, then added two generous servings of whole wheat spaghetti and the broccoli. Top with a scattering of parmesan cheese, and done!

Incredible! The roasted garlic and lemon somehow combined to become creamy and smooth- neither flavor was overwhelming. I could probably eat just the garlic and lemon combination spread on crackers (mmm, with goat cheese?). Nathan and I loved it- I'll definitely be making it again! 


Have you cooked with preserved lemon? What did you make? Let me know if you try either of these recipes!