How to Juice Lemons (the Easy Way!)

Love fresh-squeezed lemonade but not a huge fan of squeezing lemons? Here's the trick you need.

Everyone knows how to juice a lemon. Just grab a citrus reamer, right? But doing a lot of lemons will leave your hands achy and sticky. For a batch of fresh-squeezed lemonade, I have a trick that gets things done super-quick (in a minute or less). I discovered it this past summer, and it’s been a game changer. The pitcher of lemonade in my fridge is always full, no matter how fast my kids seem to drink it.

Here’s what I do!

Use a Food Processor

Get out your food processor, and fit it with your dough blade. (You’re about to be amazed.) Rinse off however many lemons you’ll need to make a pitcher. This Orange Lemonade recipe calls for 1-1/2 cups lemon juice, which is about 10 lemons. Follow these easy steps:

  • Cut off both ends, and discard
  • Cut each lemon into four-ish thick slices
  • Toss them into the food processor, and turn it on. In a minute or less, the lemon rinds will be empty or nearly so
  • Pour the whole muddled mess through a mesh strainer

how to juice lemons in a food processorLauren Cahn / Taste of Home

I use the juice for lemonade, of course, and I keep the lemon rinds on hand to clean my wood cutting boards, freshen the garbage disposal and tackle other cleaning tasks. I keep them in a bowl in the refrigerator and use ’em until I make my next batch of lemonade.

Perfectly Zesty Lemon Juice

What’s most amazing about this lemon juicing method is how much more juice you get out of each lemon than you do with ordinary squeezing. So, it’s not only super-fast, it’s super-efficient. Freeze any extra juice in an ice cube tray—the lemon juice cubes are great for flavoring water or cooking.

You know what else you can make with fresh-squeezed lemon juice? Bake Sale Lemon Bars!

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Lauren Cahn
Lauren Cahn is a New York-based writer whose work has appeared regularly in The Huffington Post as well as a variety of other publications since 2008 on such topics as life and style, popular culture, law, religion, health, fitness, yoga, entertaining and entertainment. She is also a writer of crime fiction; her first full-length manuscript, The Trust Game, was short-listed for the 2017 CLUE Award for emerging talent in the genre of suspense fiction.