Homemade Garlic And Lemon Infused Oil

Garlic and lemon go together perfectly, they flavour all sorts of foods. Add them to a good olive oil and you have homemade garlic and lemon oil that will flavour salads and be a godsend in your cooking of all sorts of dishes from roasting a chicken to veggies, and so much more.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• Infused oils are super easy to make and so damn useful in the kitchen saving you time and effort when you are cooking on a day-to-day basis and short on time.
• 3 ingredients – that’s it, this garlic and lemon oil has only 3 ingredients and those are easy-to-find store cupboard staples.
• This is the Mediterranean in a jar, the fresh zing of luscious lemons and the punch of garlic all wrapped up in delicious Mediterranean olive oil.

I love flavoured oils and vinegars. To me they are a larder basic that save me hours of time and make cooking so much simpler, especially in the winter months. Check out my section of Homemade Oils And Vinegars for more ideas.

When I wrote my first cookbook So Easy Herbal I made lots of amazing infused oils and vinegars and have carried on making them ever since. Adding more and more flavours over the years.

This homemade garlic and lemon oil is wonderful as a salad dressing and also as a base oil for cooking.

It’s tangy and punchy and bright and golden.

Ingredients

There are only 3 ingredients for this lemon and garlic oil.

Lemons. Garlic. Olive Oil.

Pro tips

Removing wax on lemons – All lemons in the supermarket are coated in a protective wax. You can buy unwaxed lemons but why bother when you can so easily remove the wax yourself.

Simply wash the lemons in warm soapy water and give them a jolly good scrub with a nail brush to remove the wax. Then rinse the lemons under cold water and pat dry with a clean tea towel.

Olive oil – use any basic olive oil to make your lemon and garlic oil. There is no need to reach for the extra virgin olive oil. Good old-fashioned basic olive oil is all you need for this recipe.

How to make this oil

Roughly bash the garlic cloves so that they pop out of their papery skins. You don’t have to cut them or do anything else with the garlic, that’s it.

Now put the garlic in a small pan with the olive oil and heat it till there are just tiny bubbles forming around the edges of the oil.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the garlic sit in the oil for 1 hour. Strain the garlic out of the oil and discard the cloves.

Pour the garlic infused oil into a sterilised jar and add the lemon zest. Put this jar of garlic oil with lemon zest into a cupboard and leave it for 2 weeks.

Strain the lemon peel out of the oil and you have gorgeous lemon and garlic infused oil.

How long does this infused oil keep?

Your garlic and lemon oil will keep for up to 6 weeks.

How to use infused oil

As I’ve said I love using my garlic and lemon oil on roast chicken, just sprinkle the oil over the chicken skin and massage it in before roasting the chicken and getting those amazing flavours of garlic and lemon going right into that chicken flesh.

Sprinkle garlic and lemon oil on carrots, broccoli etc before you roast them.

This garlic and lemon oil is amazing when you are making homemade focaccia bread. I love it on my rosemary focaccia.

Lemon and garlic oil is just perfect for making your own pesto, the flavour is already in there so just chuck in some basil, pine nuts and parmesan and you are all done.

This recipe makes a great foodie gift, so why not check out my post on how to make Christmas hampers.

Looking for more fun and easy infused oils and vinegar recipes? Then check these out before you go;

Rosemary and mint vinegar

How to make homemade garlic oil

Spiced apple vinegar

Rosehip vinegar

Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.