5 Things to Crush, Crumble, and Smash With Your Citrus Squeezer

POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu
POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu

A citrus squeezer is one of those tools that you can get a lot of mileage out of just in its intended use. Think of all the dishes, sauces, and beverages that call for citrus juice — salad dressings, micheladas, and, of course, fresh-squeezed lemonade — the humble citrus squeezer makes it all happen. However, citrus fruits aren't the only food that you can fit snugly in the bed of a citrus squeezer and violently squish with glee.

In fact, there are items that are neither citrus nor fruit that can use some squeezing in order to yield something useful for cooking. Here are five completely unexpected foods that you can transform with a citrus squeezer.

Crush Hardened Brown Sugar
POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu

Crush Hardened Brown Sugar

If you're like me, then you oftentimes forget to close your brown sugar box to make it air-tight. When that happens, the moisture in the brown sugar evaporates and it hardens. Before I discovered this trick, I used to take my giant block of hardened brown sugar and shave off grains with a knife. Needless to say, that was laborious and just downright inefficient. Now, I break off a lime-size chunk and stick it in my citrus squeezer, whose powerful squeezing capabilities will turn that hardened sugar into sand-like grains with just one squeeze.

Grind Spices
POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu

Grind Spices

If you don't have a mortar and pestle but you need to grind up some peppercorns or any other whole spice, you can do a rough grind with your trusty citrus squeezer. It may not grind your spices into fine powder, but you'll have a coarse spice that you can easily use in your cooking.

Crumble Graham Crackers
POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu

Crumble Graham Crackers

Don't have a food processor? No problem. If you're making a graham cracker crust, you can use a citrus juicer to crumble the crackers and then manually mix in the butter and sugar. Not owning a certain piece of equipment should never keep you from making something, especially if that something involves a graham cracker crust.

Smash Avocados
POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu

Smash Avocados

If you're making guacamole but for some reason you hate manually smashing avocado with a spoon, you can always throw it into your citrus squeezer to get the job done. All you need to do is scoop and squeeze (no smashing required).

Turn Croutons Into Breadcrumbs
POPSUGAR Photography | Alicia Lu

Turn Croutons Into Breadcrumbs

Again, if you don't have a food processor, you can still make perfectly crumbly breadcrumbs. Just put croutons or crispy, hardened bread into your citrus squeezer, and voila! It's ready to go into your meatball mixture.