With a pretty steady year-round crop of avocados from Mexico, along with our domestic supply in California, most of us in the US can enjoy delicious in season avocados year round. How great is that? In the summer, when light pastas, cold soups (like our famous avocado soup!), and outdoor snacks are the name of the game, avocados come in really handy.
In a previous post, we talked about the proper way to slice an avocado. But in this post, we’re going to talk about what happens when you’re hankering for some guacamole, but your avocados aren’t quite ripe enough to work well. Hint: you can speed up the ripening process if you just know the trick to how to ripen an avocado.
How to Ripen an Avocado
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to wait days in order to have your avocado ripen to perfection. In fact, you can speed up the process pretty quickly at home with just a few supplies that you probably already have lying around the house. There are a few different methods you can use to ripen an avocado, and we’ve listed the best methods below.
The Window Sill Method
If you’ve got a few days before you need to use your avocados, the best way to ripen those things is to let nature take its course in lots of sunlight. Place the avocados by themselves in the window sill where they’ll get lots of sunlight. Depending on how far into the ripening process they already are, this can take just a day or two and will result in perfectly ripe avocados. Just remember to check them every day. Ripened avocados will be dark in color (almost a purplish color) and will be soft enough for you to squeeze easily.
The Brown Bag Method
A slightly faster way to ripen an avocado is another tried and true method that’s been used for years. Get a brown paper bag (it’s important that you use a paper bag, and not a plastic bag). Toss the avocados in the bag with a banana and roll up to close. Leave the bag on a counter or in sunlight for 12-24 hours. Doing this speeds up the natural process of the fruits releasing ethylene gas, which significantly speeds up natural ripening. The paper bag traps the gas so that it stays around the fruits, causing them to ripen more quickly.
Baking in the Oven Method
This method really should be used only as a last-ditch effort to ripen avocados in an hour. It’s far from ideal, but it will soften them up enough to be used in a recipe. Keep in mind though – and this is important – that this method will significantly change the flavor of your avocados, so it’s not a great idea for things like guacamole. If you’re still ready to move forward with this method, preheat your oven to 200 degrees F. Wrap each avocado that you want to ripen in tin foil. Make sure it’s completely covered and sealed at the edges. Once the oven is preheated, place the avocados into a baking dish and begin baking. A lot of tips will say that it only takes 10 minutes to ripen the avocados this way, but a lot of that depends on how ripe the avocados are already. Start by letting them cook for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, check how soft they are by squeezing them. Keep checking on them in 5 minute intervals until they’re soft enough to use. This entire process shouldn’t take over an hour. One they’re soft enough, remove from the oven and allow them to completely cool for 30-45 minutes.
Do you have any helpful tips for how to ripen an avocado? If so, share them with us in the comments!
