What to do if you bought an unripe avocado: can you eat it, how to make it ripen

Founder of the International Institute of Integrative Nutritionology

What to do with an unripe avocado? How to make the fruit ripe?

You bought an unripe avocado? Such a fruit will not harm your health, but do not expect a delicate flavor and pleasant texture. Green avocado retains vitamins and healthy fats, but it will not be grinded into a delicate paste for salad dressing and will not be easy to peel and remove the hard seed. But do not hurry to get upset and throw away such a fruit. We tell you about five ways to accelerate ripening, which will preserve vitamins and reveal a distinct flavor.

Avocado is a real superfood with a lot of useful properties: for example, it helps in the fight against excess weight, improves intestinal function, is used in the prevention of diabetes, thrombosis and cancer.

The pulp of the fruit contains about 30% of healthy vegetable fats, only 2% of fructose and many vitamins and minerals:

vitamins – A, C, D, PP, E, K, B;
minerals – phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium.

I suggest five easy and safe ways to get a tender avocado for a complete breakfast.

Obsah

“Brew” in boiling water

This option of heat treatment minimally reduces the flavor and useful properties. In addition, this is the fastest way to get a soft avocado, because you will spend no more than six minutes on cooking. The process is pretty simple.

Pierce the avocado with a fork in several places or make shallow cross-shaped incisions at the base and at the stem.
Place the avocado in a deep pot.
Pour boiling water over the whole fruit.
Let stand for two to three minutes. Take it out and check for softness. If the flesh is still firm, immerse the avocado in the boiling water for another two to three minutes.

Place in paper

This method maximizes the benefits and flavor of avocados, but takes time. The ripening process takes from two to three days to a week, depending on the initial ripeness of the fruit. You will need plain writing paper or old newspaper.

Wash and dry the fruit, then wrap it tightly in two or three layers of paper.
Put the “wrappers” in the heat: at the radiator, on the kitchen cabinet, closer to the stove.
Daily check the condition of the fruit and turn them over so that the process goes evenly. Once the flesh is soft, avocados can be served.

Enlist the help of other fruits

Avocados ripen faster with the help of ethylene gas, which is released by ripe or overripe fruit. Champions in the synthesis of ethylene – bananas, red apples, tomatoes. In this method, all the properties, benefits and flavor of avocados are fully preserved. This ripening process takes two to three days, the duration depends on three factors:

the initial ripeness of the avocado;
the activity of the “auxiliary” fruit in releasing ethylene;
the microclimate in the room.

The process itself is fairly simple:

put avocados and ripe washed and dry fruit in a plastic or paper bag (preferably a reusable ziplock bag or airtight plastic container);
keep the room temperature between 20-24°C;
monitor ripeness daily to ensure avocados are not overripe.

Make a cereal greenhouse

All kinds of purified rice and corn kernels also actively produce ethylene. Therefore, avocados can be placed in a large container and covered with a layer of groats of two to three centimeters.

In such a “greenhouse” the avocado will ripen in one to three days. The process at room temperature goes quickly, so it is important to check the state of the fruit daily, so that it does not overripen and does not rot.

Use Grandma’s method

Avocados can ripen like regular tomatoes – just lying on the windowsill. If you have a few days and some patience, wrap the avocado in foil or paper and leave it on a warm windowsill. If it is summer, you can do without paper. This method will allow the fruit to ripen in almost natural conditions, making it soft, flavorful and as healthy as possible.

The degree of maturity of the tropical fruit is checked by several criteria. One of the main ones is the color of the skin:

light green peel – an indicator that the fruit needs to ripen for 4-5 days;
classic green – it will reach the desired state in 2-3 days;
dark green color, closer to emerald – in a few hours, maximum in 24 hours the fruit will ripen;
brown color – the avocado is ripe and ready to eat.

Another indicator of maturity is the softness of the skin when lightly pressed. If a dent appears under your finger when you press it, which quickly spreads out, the avocado is ripe, you should take it! We told you in detail about how to choose a good avocado here.