How to Ripen Avocados and Keep Them Fresh a Long Time

The best methods for quickly ripening avocados and how to store and keep perfectly ripe avocados fresh for a long time.

Avocados: A delicious powerhouse of nutrients. We love them, need them on our toast and in our guacamole. But they can take forever to ripen and then, in the blink of an eye, turn mushy on you.

What if I told you that you could greatly (and naturally) extend the shelf life of your perfectly ripened avocados? By days and weeks at time? The same avocado. Same level of ripeness.

You might tell me that sounds like madness. Witchcraft, even. But it’s possible, alright. And insanely easy.

In this post, we’re going to learn the basics of working with avocados

• Choosing the optimal avocado
• What makes an avocado ripen
• The best methods to quickly ripen avocados
• How to store and preserve perfectly ripe avocados so they last for weeks to come

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Hack for Buying Avocados

Don’t you hate when you buy an avocado, cut it open and discover an enormous avocado seed? Especially if you’re shopping at one of those boujee organic grocery stores where the avocados cost and arm and a leg. It feels like you’ve paid for a lotta seed and very little avocado.

It just so happens there is a little trick when buying avocados that will help you get more avocado and less seed the next time you hit up the grocery store (check it out in this video, originally from my Instagram channel).

I try aim to buy longer, skinny avocados vs round fats ones. The fat round ones always always seem to be hiding a big ol’ avocado seed (sometimes you get lucky and find a smaller seed, but why risk it when things like avocado toast are at stake, people?). It always seems to give me more avocado and more bang for my buck.

How to Quickly Ripen Avocados

First thing’s first, you can’t use a non-ripened avocado for much (besides throwing it at your brother when he’s being an idiot, but I digress).

What if you run into a circumstance where you just need a decently ripe avocado?

Like if you’re in charge of the guacamole for your office’s next Taco Tuesday party, but the grocery store doesn’t have any ripened avocados? You can’t bring store bought guac (not when you know that Brenda from accounting is making her own salsa and homemade tortilla chips, or you’ll never hear the end of that one).

You need to ripen those avocados quickly.

What Causes Avocados to Ripen?

What causes fruit (yes, an avocado is a fruit) to ripen? It matters if you want to know how to better ripen/preserve your avocados.

Plants emit a hormone called ethylene which promotes ripening. Higher levels of ethylene can be triggered as stress response to damage like cuts, bruising or exposure to higher temperatures. This hormone can also travel from one plant (or piece of fruit) to another like a signal (causing its fruit buddies to also start ripening faster).

Of course, I’m not saying that you should beat up or threaten your avocados to ripen them faster (you’re already going to eat them, there’s no need to torture them too, you monster). But temperature and proximity can help us play a role in ripening and preserving our avocados.

The Best Methods to Ripen Avocados

How to ripen avocados in the oven

If you need to ripen avocados immediately (like, today), not to worry. You can quickly ripen avocados in the oven. Simply take the whole avocado, use a fork to puncture the skin, wrap it in tin foil and place it in the oven at a temperature of 200°F.

Cooking time can vary based on the condition of the avocado. If the avocado was somewhat close to being ripe, it might only need to bake for about 10 minutes. A completely inedible hard, un-ripened avocado might take closer to 60 minutes. Just make sure to keep an eye on your avocado as it bakes to check its progress.

Should you bake avocados to ripen them?

There’s a little bit of controversy over this method of ripening avocados (these avocado enthusiasts are serious, y’all). The argument against artificially ripening avocados (in the oven or microwave) is that the avocado won’t taste quite as good or have as “buttery” a texture as naturally ripened avocados.

There’s some truth to this and the avocado may indeed have slightly different taste/texture (not bad, just a bit different). But at the end of the day, it’s still an avocado and going to taste like an avocado. It’s also useful knowledge if you just need a ripe batch of avocados in a pinch (like when you don’t want to hear Brenda go on forever about her homemade chips and salsa).

How to naturally ripen avocados quickly

Let’s say you’re not in a hurry and have a few days to ripen your avocados. You can coax avocados to ripen more quickly in a natural way that doesn’t sacrifice flavor or that luxurious, perfectly ripe avocado texture.

My favorite method for naturally ripening avocados (or any fruit, really) is the brown paper bag method.

You’re going to place all of your avocados together in a brown paper bag (so they can whisper ethylene secrets to each other in the dark), roll up and close the bag. I prefer using a paper bag here vs a plastic one, because it still allows the fruit to breathe so that they don’t go mushy and moldy.

Let the bag sit at room temperature and, if possible, in front of a window with exposure to sunlight (to help increase the temperature). Wait a few days and boom: Holy guacamole, you’ve got ripe avocados.

How to Preserve Ripened Avocados

Okay, so now we’ve got our perfectly ripened avocados. If you’re not using them all at once, but rather spreading their use throughout the week, you don’t want them to go mushy on you before you can use them.

In the same way that higher temperature can help us more quickly ripen an avocado, lower ones can help us preserve them.

That’s right, we’re taking our avocados to the fridge and the freezer.

How to Store Avocados in the Refrigerator

If you plan on using your ripened avocados on a daily basis (on delicious things like toast), you’re going to store them in an air-tight container the refrigerator. This is my preferred method of storage for quick and easy access on a daily basis and can extend my perfectly ripe avocados up to a week (sometimes longer) from the time I’ve ripened them.

You can store the avocados whole if you want, but for the sake of time and convenience, I like to cut them in half and remove the pits. When you store you avocados pre-sliced, the exposed avocado flesh may brown a bit (nothing wrong with them, it’s just a bit of oxidation). All you need to do to prevent this is to give the avocado halves a quick brush over with lemon juice (similarly to how you would keep a sliced apple from browning).

Personally, I’m lazy and don’t usually bother adding lemon juice (it doesn’t harm the freshness or flavor of the avocado). If you’re planning to use your avocados to serve to friends (like homemade guac where you want the colors to pop), I’d save the whole avocados until you’re ready to make your recipe (and remember to add a little lemon juice to preserve the color of your guac).

I also try to opt for a glass container vs a plastic container.

Glass Meal Prep Containers

I just think avocados seem to keep better in glass containers. We’ve also been making the switch to trying to use glass containers for food vs plastic ones because:

• As the plastic breaks down over time, you can actually be ingesting microplastics with your food
• Numerous studies have found that most plastic containers release estrogenic chemicals (particularly when scratched or heated in the microwave) that can really mess with your body’s natural hormones and potentially create a number of adverse health effects over time (including possibly increased risks of cancer)

Do yourself a favor and invest some glass containers like these:

• Glass containers with dividers (great for meal prepping lunches and dinners)
• Glass containers without dividers (great for food storage)

How to Store Avocados in the Freezer

If you don’t use avocados on a daily basis, but like the idea of keeping one on hand for any potential avocado toast emergencies, the freezer is the way to go. That’s right, you can freeze your avocado and then thaw it out to enjoy good as new.

Personally, I like keeping avocados in the freezer to use in smoothies during the week. There are a few key pointers on prepping and storing your avocados for the best freezer experiences.

1. Make sure the avocado has reached optimum ripeness.

Avocados are going to ripen more optimally before having been frozen. So save yourself some trouble and ripen them before freezing.

2. Remove the avocado peel and pit.

This should go without saying, but one time I told someone that I freeze bananas for smoothies and didn’t mention you need to peel them first. They later came back and told me they nearly lost a finger trying to cut off that frozen banana peel. So please. Peel and de-pit your avocado before freezing.

3. Decide how to cut the avocado

This will make a difference for thawing time and measurability later on when using your frozen avocado.

If you’re planning to use the avocado in smoothies, cramming half of a rock solid frozen avocado into a single serving blender is quite the feat to accomplish (guess who has two thumbs and didn’t take that into account the first time she froze her avocados).

A whole or halved avocado will also take longer to thaw than an avocado that’s been cut into cubes or thinner slices and spread out evenly in a container for freezing.

4. Pop those avocados in the freezer

Like I said, we’ve been trying to make the switch to glass containers for food storage. And the good news there is that you can find freezer-safe glass storage containers!

Freezer Safe Glass Food Storage Containers

The other great thing about utilizing reusable containers for food storage is that one reusable container can take the place of hundreds of disposable, single use plastic zip lock bags (which a lot of people use for freezer storage). They’re affordable and can actually save you money in the long run when you take into account how much the average person might spend on buying disposable bags on a weekly basis throughout their lifetime. Click here to check them out!

Final Thoughts on How to Ripen Avocados and Keep them Fresh a Long Time

Now you officially know the keys to quickly ripening avocados and how to store and keep avocados fresh for a long time. Whether you’re using your avocados in smoothies, on toast or to make the perfect batch of guacamole, you’re going to be unstoppable in all of your future avocado endeavors (just don’t tell any of these tricks to Brenda, or I guarantee you she’ll strut around pretending like she invented them at the next Taco Tuesday party).

Related Recipes 

• Easy Mango Salsa (that’s way better than Brenda’s)
• How to Make Easy Sushi (that’s way more impressive than Brenda’s tortilla chips)

Related Informative Nutrition Articles 

• How to Buy Raw Fish for Sushi and Poke Bowls (to make your sushi even more sophisticated)
• How to Drink a Gallon of Water a Day (bet you Brenda can’t do that)
•  What Happens When You Take Collagen Every Day for a Month (to have way better skin/nails/hair than Brenda)

References:
1. Kendrick, Mandy. “The Origin of Fruit Ripening.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 17 Aug. 2009.
2. Hamilton, Jon. “Study: Most Plastics Leach Hormone-Like Chemicals.” NPR, NPR, 2 Mar. 2011.
3. Harvard Health Publishing. “Is Plastic a Threat to Your Health?” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Health Medical School, retrieved 1 Mar. 2021.
4. “Exposure to Chemicals in Plastic.” Breastcancer.org, Breastcancer.org, 11 Sept. 2020.
5. Yang, Chun Z, et al. “Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: a Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved.” Environmental Health Perspectives, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 1 July 2011.