Five Unusual Uses For Your Microwave

Your microwave is more than just a vessel in which to pop movie-night popcorn and reheat yesterday’s soup for lunch. In fact, there are loads of ways to make your microwave work for you! Here are five unusual uses for your microwave that’ll make cooking and snacking just a tad easier for you:

1. Cut Onions Without Crying

There’s nothing worse than bursting into Titantic-sized hysterics when all you’re trying to do is chop up some onions for dinner. Bypass the tears by heating them up in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Just be sure to trim off the tips of the onions first before nuking ’em. Afterwards, your eyes should water no more!

2. Juice Every Last Drop From Your Lemons

You can squeeze and twist and pulverize that little lemon, but for some reason, there’s always going to be some juicy drops of citrus zest still hiding in the pulp. Make life easier by microwaving your lemon (or lime) for 10-20 seconds, softening the fruit and making it super extra juicy and easy to squeeze.

3. Peel Garlic In A Cinch

Handling stinky garlic is annoying as it is, what with the juice absorbing into your hands and lingering for a few days. But peeling garlic doesn’t have to take forever! Zap a single clove on high for 15 seconds, pulling the moisture out of the clove and allowing the crispy skin containing it to fall off easily.

4. Re-Hydrate Stale Bread

No one likes stale bread, right? But waste not, want not! You can soften your crunchy, stale bread by re-hydrating it in the microwave. Just dampen a paper towel and wrap it around your bread, microwaving it for 10 seconds. (If it doesn’t soften enough, don’t be afraid to go another 10 second increment!) 

5. Dry Fresh Herbs

Quit wasting delicious bunches of fresh herbs. You can beautifully dry your older herbs in the microwave, elongating their life and saving them to use in dishes like pasta sauces and soup. Just place your herbs on a paper towel and zap for 2-4 minutes. Afterwards, just simply crumble the dried bunch in the paper towel and save in a small jar or old seasoning container.