Cutting Tricks That Can Save You Time

We all spend time cooking, cutting, and chopping our fruits and vegetables in the kitchen. However, with simple tricks, you can make the entire process go faster. In this article, 5-Minute Crafts rounded up some superb cutting, peeling, and squeezing hacks to save you time while having fun.

❗Please be careful while working with cutting tools.

I. Slicing tricks

1. Onions

You’ll need: an onion and a vegetable scraper or peeler

How to do it:

1. Prepare your onion so that it’s free from its skin.
2. Cut it in half.
3. Using a peeler, start cutting the onion vertically (pole to pole) against its fibers.
4. Keep cutting it.

2. Peaches

You’ll need: a knife and a peach

How to do it:

1. Get your whole peach and a knife.
2. Make vertical and horizontal cuts from top to bottom and along the sides.
3. Hold it in both hands.
4. Twist each side in the opposite direction and release its pit.

3. Mushrooms

You’ll need: mushrooms, a knife, and wooden sticks or skewers

How to do it:

1. Pierce the wooden stick onto the mushrooms, and line them all up from their heads.
2. Holding the stick vertical to the surface, start cutting them from their sides.
3. Keep cutting.
4. Remove the rest of the mushroom slices from the stick with your hands.

II. Peeling tricks

1. Kiwis

You’ll need: a knife, a kiwi, and a glass

How to do it:

1. Using a knife, cut the kiwi in half.
2. Hold one half vertically in your hand, and push it down against the brim of the glass.
3. Repeat the previous step for the other half too.
4. Keep pushing until the kiwi falls into the glass.

2. Cucumbers

You’ll need: a cucumber and a knife

How to do it:

1. Place the cucumber on a flat surface.
2. Hold the knife on its side where it touches the surface.
3. Start rolling and peeling it with your other hand at the same time while pressing on the cucumber with one hand.
4. Keep rolling and peeling until you reach the end.

3. Oranges

You’ll need: a big spoon and an orange

How to do it:

1. Hold the orange in one hand.
2. Using a spoon, start pushing the spoon into its top section from the middle line, ensuring it doesn’t cut the orange.
3. Keep the spoon running all around the orange from the inside. Once complete, get rid of the skin.
4. Repeat the same step for the other section too.

III. Squeezing tricks

1. Limes

You’ll need: a lime and a bowl

How to do it:

1. Cut the lime in half. Hold it in both hands above the bowl.
2. Turn the inside of the lime outward, slowly.
3. Using your fingers, start pressing.
4. Keep pressing until you get all the juice out of the lime.

2. Pomegranates

You’ll need: a pomegranate, a knife, and a tall glass

How to do it:

1. Hold the pomegranate on a flat surface with its top section facing the side. Then place both your hands onto it and apply some force while pressing and moving it around under your hands.
2. Make sure it gets softer.
3. Make a small cut using a knife.
4. Squeeze it into a tall glass.

3. Apples

You’ll need: a frozen apple and a glass container

How to do it:

1. Prepare your frozen apple.
2. Defrost it completely.
3. Start squeezing over a glass container.
4. Keep squeezing until you take out all of its juice.

Bonus: how to remove apple cores

You’ll need: a plastic syringe and an apple

How to do it:

1. Place a syringe on a flat surface. Remove the edge of the syringe.
2. Hold the apple vertically to the surface. Gently but firmly push the syringe into the core of the apple.
3. Start retracting the syringe out of the apple.
4. Keep retracting until the whole core is out of the apple.