You know the phrase: you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?
That’s how I feel about zesters.
I used to have a zester, like a million and a half years ago, and then – it disappeared. Probably to the same place single socks disappear to.
Of course, I didn’t notice when it was gone – at first! Who keeps strict track of their zester? Not me is for sure.
But then I was following a recipe that called for a zester. And I had no zester. And I had no zest.
And then the same thing happened again – no zester, no zest!
When I didn’t have my zester, I really missed it, but when I did have it, I didn’t appreciate it.
Luckily though, by the 3rd time I needed a zester but didn’t have one on hand, I had learned the tricks to making zest without a zester. Here is how you do it:
Use your vegetable peeler!
Carefully take your vegetable peeler against the citrus fruit you want to zest and scrape up just the colored part of the rind.
Then, cut the strips you peeled into longer, mini strips.
Finally, dice those strips up.
Couldn’t be easier! (Except if you have a real zester of course…I’m ordering one on Amazon as soon as I finish this article.)
