Avocados tend to be cheap and last a lot longer if you buy them unripe, but it can be frustrating waiting for them to become soft enough to eat. However Angela Roberts, a cook and founder of Spinach Tiger, has shared how easy it is to ripen avocados without using an oven.
She said: “You may have heard about the method of putting the avocado in the oven wrapped in tin foil trying to rush the process. Don’t do that unless you are absolutely desperate to make guacamole.” It is really popular on social media to recommend heating up ripe avocados in the oven to make them edible, but this will only cook the skin so you are left with a mushy and tasteless avocado that is not very appetising.
Fruit needs to ripen naturally to develop their flavour and texture, but you can speed up this process in an avocado if you just store it with a banana.
Angela said: “This seems to give me that unblemished, not too hard, not too soft, perfect avocado that I can peel, and slice. If the avocado is not rock hard, it will or might ripen overnight. Usually though, it takes me two days.”
Avocados are very sensitive to a substance called ethylene, an invisible gas that ripens fruit, and bananas release more of it than any other produce.
When ethylene is in the air, it will cause fruit to begin ripening very quickly, which is why you should not store bananas in a fruit bowl if you wish to keep them fresh for a long time.
If you store avocados with bananas in an enclosed space then it will trap ethylene gas, and the avovado will be ready to eat within a day – or even in just a few hours – depending on when you bought them.
How to ripen avocados quickly and naturally
All you need to do place an avocado and banana in a paper bag, then place the bag somewhere dark and cool in your kitchen.
It is incredibly important to use a paper bag as it is a light material that will allow air to circulate around the fruit which helps prevent mould.
If you use a plastic bag then it will trap moisture, and cause the avocados and bananas to rot instead of ripen.
Make sure to keep the avocados away from light and heat, as this can cause uneven ripening and could encourage bacterial growth.
Keep your paper bag somewhere like a cupboard, drawer or pantry, then check on it regularly, and your avocados will be soft and edible in no time.
