Hacks to ripen avocados naturally and quickly

It’s easy to rush and buy the first avocado you see at the local grocery store. While they are by no means considered rare items, they are special and require the right level of knowledge and patience for you to use them properly. Avocados have a small window (say, a few days) in which they quickly go from inedible to delicious to awful… and it’s important to be aware of that before you buy or eat them. Here are hacks to ripen avocados naturally and quickly.

Super Food Profiles believes that rather than soft avocados, buy avocados that are a little hard and keep them at home while you wait for them to be just right. You never know how long those soft and perfect-looking avocados have been sitting in your supermarket, being held in the hands of dozens of people who accidentally ruin their flesh every time they squeeze them.

There are many ways to speed up the avocado ripening process, but the best way is to be patient. However, if you need an avocado as soon as possible, consider the ripening methods below.

paper bag

The easiest way to kickstart the ripening process is to place the avocado in a brown paper bag. This method traps the ethylene gas given off by the fruit and speeds up the ripening process. After 24 hours you will see some progress.

You can also try putting a different fruit in the bag — an apple or banana are the most common — to speed up the process even further, as they also produce ethylene gas. You’ll need to be patient, though, as only circumstantial evidence suggests that folding fruit together will speed up the ripening process.

Let them get some sunlight

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For the same reason, a slower but more natural way to speed up your avocado’s ripening process is to place it in a fruit bowl alongside other fruit in a spot where it will receive indirect sunlight. If you have multiple avocados and plan to eat them every day of the week, you can place them closer or further away from the other fruits depending on when you want them ready. The closer they are to other fruits, the faster they ripen.

What to do if you cut an avocado and it’s unripe?

If you cut open an avocado and find it’s still hard and not ready to eat, add a squeeze of lemon. Then place both halves of the avocado in a sealed plastic container along with the pit inside and place a banana or apple inside. The next day you might find a wild animal there, or it works and your avocado is ripe. If you want to be on the safe side, it’s best to use the unripe avocado in a recipe that doesn’t call for a lot of texture and flavor from the fruit.

Never use the microwave or oven

Some avocado enthusiasts believe that putting an avocado in the oven or microwave will speed up the ripening process, but that’s not true. You could burn yourself and end up eating a tasteless green lump. There’s no magic way to trick nature, and avocados are ready by themselves.