With summer citrus at its peak, you might be making lemonade or adding some delicious lime to your evening meals. But juicing can get difficult and tedious. Luckily, there’s a hack for it.
Turns out, taking just 10-20 seconds to microwave your citrus can make it much easier to juice.
“Microwaving softens the fibrous membranes in the citrus, making it easier to release the liquid from them,” said Kelly Jones, a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics.
Just pop an uncut, unpeeled lemon in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, cut it in half, and then juice as normal. You should notice that you get markedly more juice than usual.
The amount of time the lemon will need to be microwaved depends on how you store it. For example, if you keep your citrus on your countertop at room temperature, try 10 seconds first. However, if you store them in the fridge, you might need up to 20 seconds to get them warm enough, but not too hot.
This isn’t the only juicing hack that’s gone viral lately, though.
TikTok content creator, Shara, recently shared this video, showing her cutting off the skin at the round end of a halved lemon. Once the top was gone, she places the lemon (round, newly cut side down) in a citrus juicer and squeezed.
When she was done, the lemon was nearly hollowed out and there was substantial juice.
If you’ve been struggling to get enough lemon juice for your creamy summer lemonade, one of these hacks is sure to help!
[Via Well + Good]
