THIS HOLDS FOR SOLR VERSIONS < 5.0
Try [solr url]/update?commit=true
For example, with an URL like the SOLR example defaults, from the same machine, http://localhost:8983/solr/update?commit=true
should do it.
FOR SOLR VERSIONS >= 5.0
http://localhost:8983/solr/[collection_name]/update?commit=true