It's well established that millenials are screwing themselves over with their detrimental love of avocados. They've caused the housing crisis and taken away the youth's sense of humour - turning them into snowflake social justice warriors and caused a crazy wave of vegan fever.
Like the avocado's place in socio-economical pop culture, no one seems to agree on where to store the pebbled fruit. One nutritionist has the answer we need. Because you and your avocados deserve to be living your best lives, we’re going to settle this situation once and for all.
Keeping your avo as ripe and juicy as possible isn't entirely in your hands, but you can help make sure you get the most out of the green treat when you pick it up from the produce section. Will Hawkins, Registered Nutritionist at Push Doctor explains to Wren Kitchens that it’s best to plan your avo consumption ahead of time.
You should consider buying them a day or so before you plan to eat them, allowing them time to ripen like a dream. Side note, consider when you're buying avocados not getting the ones in plastic packaging. If you're buying avocados, you care about what you put into your body and the chances are you want to look after the environment too. Now, once you have your avocados, what do you do? Hawkins advises to "not refrigerate your avocados, at least not initially."
"Once picked from the tree, avocados, much like bananas, produce ethylene, which triggers the ripening process. The optimal temperature for this is 20°C. Fresh-picked avocados should ripen under these conditions within three to six days. When ripe, the avocado should yield gently to pressure, but not be squishy."
If your avocado is taking ages to ripen, what do you do? Hawkins suggests getting in some extra tools, namely a bag. "If you want to accelerate the ripening process, place the avocados in a paper bag,’ says Hawkins. This concentrates the ethylene gas. If you add other fruits, such as bananas and apples, they will all ripen more quickly together." If the opposite seems to be happening, you may find yourself stuck. Luckily this is where your fridge comes in.
"Once an avocado is ripe, you can hold it in that state longer by placing it in the refrigerator," explains Hawkins. "While this will not halt the ripening process altogether, it will delay it greatly. Similarly, if you have a lot of avocados and want them to ripen at different times, you can keep them in the refrigerator until a couple days before you want them to ripen."
When you don't get through all of an avocado what does Hawkins suggest? Cut avocados go brown super fast thanks to a little thing science likes to call oxidation. This doesn’t affect how edible the fruit is, but it looks gross, no two ways about it. Either get used to the look (which who are we kidding will probs not happen) or "brush the exposed flesh with lemon juice, cover with cling wrap, and refrigerate," says Hawkins.
"The acidity of the lemon juice helps stop oxidation, as does limiting the amount of oxygen that comes into contact with the flesh." No longer will your dish look like someone's already eaten it. With these suggestions, you can now, truly, become the king/queen of your (rented) castle.