The aguacate (avocado) is one of the world’s favourite super foods, much loved for its high healthy fat content. If you’re into healthy eating, you’ve probably bought yourself an aguacate a couple of times.
You’re probably also, then, familiar with the one of the saddest things an aguacate lover experiences, it’s gone brown and rotten.
So, here’s a number of different methods on how to store aguacate so they don’t turn brown.
Before You Cut Them
While it’s not recommended to permanently store aguacates in the fridge (especially while ripening), you can store them in the fridge once they’re already perfectly ripe. If you know you won’t be able to use them up for a couple days, throwing those aguacates in the fridge can slow down the ripening process and buy you some time before you can use them up.
After You’ve Cut Them
Lime (Lemon) Juice Method
The reason that aguacates go brown so quickly is because they’re really good at oxidizing. To stop aguacate from going brown, use something that either keeps oxygen away from the flesh altogether or something that slows down the oxidizing process.
One of the best things used to slow the process is lemon juice.
I Costa Rica, lemon juice if only found in a bottle. For fresh you have to substitute lemon for lime or wait until Auto Mercado has “limon persas” or yellow lemons.
To use it properly just brush it onto all of the exposed flesh of the aguacate, making sure there are no gaps. Then, wrap the aguacate in plastic wrap and place it in an airtight container before storing it in the fridge.
Olive Oil Method
I used the same technique with the olive oil as the lemon juice and it worked fairly well because the oil prevents oxygen from getting to the aguacate. However, I did find that it left my aguacate with a slimy film on top. No thank you to that.
Onion Method
Chop up about a 1/4 of any type of onion and store it in an airtight container with the your aguacate. This method apparently works better if the onion is touching the cut part of the aguacate, but it also leaves a distinctly onion-y taste. For mine, I just put the onion in the same container, but not touching any part of the avo flesh, and it worked fairly well for me.
This trick is supposed to work because of the same tears causing vapours that onions emit. The vaporized sulphur compounds might make you grab more some tissues, but they also work really well as a preservative.
Keeping the Pit In Method
This the most widely used method used. This method is effective, but only in keeping the parts of the aguacate the pit is touching from going brown because it has an airtight seal with the areas surrounding it. This means that no oxygen can get in, which means no oxidizing. Not such great news for any parts of the a aguacate that aren’t touching it, though.
Plastic Wrap Method
This method on how to store aguacate can be combined with several of the other methods and it works so well because it does the best job of keeping oxygen away from the flesh of the aguacate. For double protection, wrap the aguacate tightly in plastic wrap, then place it in an airtight container before popping it in the fridge.
Out of all of the different ways to store aguacate, the best results came when combined with the lemon juice method with the pit and plastic wrap method.
In The End
The next time you’re looking to figure out how to store aguacates so they don’t go brown, think back to these methods to find out exactly what will make sure your aguacate stay green and delicious (almost) forever.
To eat straight or use in recipes?
