When life gives you lemons, make lemonade—but you might want to pop those lemons into the microwave first.
Any savvy shopper knows that most citrus fruits fare much better in the refrigerator than on the counter, especially if you’re buying in bulk.
While the extra cold temperature is sure to keep lemons and limes fresher for longer, it doesn’t exactly work wonders when it comes to actually using those citrus fruits.
If you keep a lemon in the crisper for a couple of days, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get a good amount of juice out of it.
There are plenty of tips out there that promise to make juicing easier, but none of them are quite as easy as placing a lemon directly in the microwave for a few seconds.
How To Soften A Lemon In Your Microwave
The method seems pretty obvious, but you really do want to be precise when softening a hard lemon in the microwave.
However, in order to squeeze the most juice possible out of a lemon, you really can’t leave it in the microwave for too long.
Depending on how long your lemons have been sitting in the crisper for, you’ll want to heat them up (in a microwave safe container!) for about 10-20 seconds.
Once they feel soft to the touch, feel free to cut your lemons in half at start juicing—you’ll be surprised by how much juice you can extract from just a single lemon!
Does It Work?
The short answer: YES! Storing lemons in the refrigerator and heating them up in the microwave when you want to use them is definitely the easiest way to get the most bang for your buck. Not only will your lemons last longer in the fridge, but using the microwave means you’ll never have to sacrifice juiciness for freshness.
