Vegetarian Lime Curd
Tangy, silky, and impossibly bright, this lime curd is the kind of thing you'll want to spoon straight from the jar before it even makes it to the fridge. It gets its gorgeous texture from a double-boiler method that gently cooks whole eggs and egg yolks together with fresh lime juice and zest, building a custard that's rich without being heavy. The butter goes in at the end, cube by cube, giving the finished curd that glossy, melt-on-your-tongue quality you'd expect from a professional pastry kitchen. Straining it through a fine-mesh sieve keeps everything perfectly smooth — no stray zest bits, just pure, velvety citrus. It's a naturally egg-and-dairy-based recipe with no meat or hidden animal stocks to worry about, so it fits a vegetarian kitchen without any substitutions needed. Spread it on scones, swirl it into yogurt, layer it in a tart, or honestly just eat it with a spoon — there are no wrong answers here.
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Learn more →Ingredients
8 servings
- 1 tbsp lime zest (from about 3 limes)
- ½ cup fresh lime juice (from about 4–5 limes)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- ¼ tsp fine salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
Instructions
- 1
Whisk together the lime zest, lime juice, sugar, whole eggs, egg yolks, and salt in a heatproof bowl until the sugar is mostly dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
- 2
Set the bowl over a medium saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Cook, whisking constantly, until the curd thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line, and the mixture reaches 170°F (77°C) on an instant-read thermometer, about 10–12 minutes. Reaching 170°F (77°C) ensures the eggs are fully cooked and the curd is food-safe.
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