When life gives you lemons, use the whole fruit! Lemons are a citrus fruit, rich in vitamin C, and can be found year-round at your local grocery store.

Although lemons are mostly squeezed for their juice, their outer peel and inner flesh are also edible, and can add flavor and more to plenty of dishes. 

When you pick up a lemon, you may notice its shiny outer peel has small dots — these are the fruit’s oil glands. Those oils are the source of a lot of the “lemony” aroma.

It’s also the reason lemon zest, which is grated bits of the peel, is used in recipes to add concentrated flavor to a dish. A lemon’s peel also contains a concentrated source of a power-packed nutrient called hesperidin, which is found in other citrus fruits. Hesperidin has a wealth of health benefits including antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties.

Lemons may also brighten up your heart health. A past study found that when both lemon juice and zest were added to recipes, the salt in the recipe could be cut by as much as 75 percent without anyone noticing.

Find the recipes over at Everyday Health.com. Find more of Roxana’s recipes here.