How Contemporary Lemon Juice Can Make Meal Prep Simpler

This web site isn’t precisely identified for shortcuts, however from time to time, somebody on this workforce provides up a tip in passing that not solely makes life (and cooking!) a lot, a lot simpler, however it additionally simply…is sensible. And whereas we’re within the enterprise of creating nice meals, we’re definitely not within the enterprise of gatekeeping. So when our culinary editor shared what she does each week to make getting meals collectively throughout the week a breeze, we had been desperate to cross on the information. 

For Genevieve, juicing about 5 or 6 lemons in the beginning of any given week saves her a great deal of time afterward. She juices sufficient to maintain a jar of it available—often repurposing a 12-ounce. Bonne Maman jar. Nonetheless, the quantity of juice you get will depend upon the scale of your lemons. And whereas the flavour of the ensuing lemon juice is nice for about 5 days, she finds that it by no means lasts longer than that as a result of she makes use of it so usually. 

So many recipes name for one teaspoon or tablespoon of lemon juice at a time, and utilizing this methodology is a lot extra environment friendly than juicing a complete lemon each time you want just a bit little bit of juice. “If I’ve a jar of lemon juice, I could make salad dressing, chicken piccata, spaghetti al limone, Reem’s garlic lemon sauce,” she says; the sauce is a mix of garlic, lemon juice, chile, salt, and cumin. You’ll be able to even toss it in your greens as a final touch for some brightness—the record actually does go on. 

Our commerce editor Grace additionally chimed in saying she makes use of the identical hack however prefers freezing the lemon juice in ice dice trays. Freezing the liquid makes it last more, whereas turning it into ice cubes makes it simple to take out small quantities as wanted. The variety of lemons you will want to refill an ice dice tray will depend upon each the scale of your citrus and the quantity of your ice dice tray. When prepared to make use of, come out nonetheless many cubes you need and place them in a bowl or a jar to thaw within the fridge till liquid. Due to the thawing time, this methodology requires just a bit extra planning forward, however will nonetheless prevent time nonetheless. 

Genevieve usually turns to the freezing methodology to make use of up lemons earlier than she goes out of city. Nonetheless, she prefers to freeze the liquid in jars after which thaw in a single day when she’s prepared to make use of it. She notes that no matter methodology you want to make use of for freezing, the juice will hold its taste for about three months. 

For Genevieve, this trick is a no brainer that she now can’t stay with out. “I began doing it once I seen some lemons had been beginning to look unhappy, and I used to be like, ‘truly it is a good concept,’” she says. It’s additionally a good way to unencumber house in your fridge. So possibly you don’t all the time come to this web site anticipating a fast tip, however right now is a brand new day!