I love eating avocados, but there is nothing more frustrating than trying to slice into one only to discover it is still rock hard and unspreadable. I have learned the hard way that avocados can take over a week to ripen and even then they only stay ripe for a short time before becoming rotten and inedible.
However, if you are feeling impatient, there is an easy way to ripen avocados naturally so they stay full of flavour – but first you need to keep them away from your oven or microwave. It’s a common cooking hack on social media to try ripening avocados by cooking them, but I’ve tried this and it doesn’t work, as the fruit won’t have developed enough to have any taste.
Fruit needs to ripen and age in order to have any flavour, so sticking them in an oven or microwave will only cook the skin to soften the outer layer. When I attempted to ripen avocados in the oven, the result was rubbery fruit with a watery, sour flavour.
Luckily, I have since discovered a simple and natural way to ripen avocados using nothing more than what is already in your fruit bowl.
How to naturally ripen avocados
Ripening avocados is easy as you simply need to place a banana or apple alongside them in a enclosed space, and within a few hours they should be perfectly ripe.
It sounds bizarre, but bananas and apples produce a lot of ethylene, which is an invisible gas that helps fruit ripen so they become softener and tastier to eat.
When there is too much ethylene gas in the air it will cause all the fruit nearby to ripen very quickly, so you will be left with a soft and perfect avocado in no time.
To begin, you simply need to get a paper bag, put your avocado inside, and then also add a banana or apple.
It is really important to use a paper bag to ripen avocados as they are made of a breathable material that cannot trap moisture. If you use a plastic bag, your avocado have a chance of becoming mouldy instead of ripening.
Once you have added the fruit to the bag, store it somewhere cool and dark in your kitchen as you need to keep it away from heat. Place the bag in a cupboard, drawer or pantry.
After eight hours, open up the paper bag and your avocados should now be ready to eat. If your avocados still seem tough, then add another banana or apple to the bag and leave them for a couple more hours.