The 5-Minute Meal Prep Trick for Easier Weeknight Meals
Serious Eats ; Getty Images/Johner ImagesSerious Eats ; Getty Images/Johner ImagesThis website isn’t exactly known for shortcuts, but every now and then, someone on this team offers up a tip in passing that not only makes life (and cooking!) much, much easier, but it also just…makes sense. And while we’re in the business of making great food, we’re certainly not in the business of gatekeeping. So when our culinary editor shared what she does every week to make getting meals together during the week a breeze, we were eager to pass on the knowledge. For Genevieve, juicing about five or six lemons at the beginning of any given week saves her loads of time later on. She juices enough to keep a jar of it on hand—usually repurposing a 12-ounce. Bonne Maman jar. However, the amount of juice you get will depend on the size of your lemons. And while the flavor of the resulting lemon juice is good for about five days, she finds that it never lasts longer than that because she uses it so often. So many recipes call for one teaspoon or tablespoon of lemon juice at a time, and using this method is so much more efficient than juicing a whole lemon every time you need just a little bit of juice. “If I have a jar of lemon juice, I can make salad dressing, chicken piccata, spaghetti al limone, Reem's garlic lemon sauce,” she says; the sauce is a combination of garlic, lemon juice, chile, salt, and cumin. You can even toss it on your vegetables as a finishing touch for some brightness—the list really does go on. Our commerce editor Grace also chimed in saying she uses the same hack but prefers freezing the lemon juice in ice cube trays. Freezing the liquid makes it last longer, while turning it into ice cubes makes it easy to take out small amounts as needed. The number of lemons you will need to fill up an ice cube tray will depend on both the size of your citrus and the volume of your ice cube tray. When ready to use, pop out however many cubes you want and place them in a bowl or a jar to thaw in the fridge until liquid. Because of the thawing time, this method requires just a little more planning ahead, but will still save you time nonetheless. Genevieve often turns to the freezing method to use up lemons before she goes out of town. However, she prefers to freeze the liquid in jars and then thaw overnight when she’s ready to use it. She notes that whatever method you like to use for freezing, the juice will keep its flavor for about three months. For Genevieve, this trick is a no-brainer that she now can’t live without. “I started doing it when I noticed some lemons were starting to look sad, and I was like, ‘actually this is a good idea,’” she says. It’s also a great way to free up space in your fridge. So maybe you don’t always come to this website expecting a quick tip, but today is a new day!
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