Why Dried Limes Are Among My Favorite Ingredients

Their complex, aromatic flavor will take your soups and stews over the top

For years I ignored the dried limes I saw in Middle Eastern markets—just walked right past them. Dusky brown things slightly larger than ping-pong balls, ringed with faint, ghostly stripes, they always seemed vaguely sinister.

But a clerk in a local Middle Eastern store mentioned them to me several times, and then one day, when my partner Stephen and I were shopping for other things in a store specializing in spices, he picked up a bag of them and said, “Why don’t you try these? They seem like they’re right up your alley.” So I did—and found one of my new favorite ingredients.

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