Nature’s butter, a perfect creamy complement to any meal, the best sidekick to a salad – avocados are just awesome. A simple addition of this super ingredient takes an average dish to a whole new delicious level.
Sadly, despite its awesomeness, keeping an avocado fresh and green can prove challenging.
And you’d know exactly what we’re talking about if you ever have experienced cutting up a fresh avocado. Leave it out in the open for a few minutes, and you’ll instantly see the brown oxidation scars sink into what was once creamy, fresh green goodness.
So how do you keep avocado fresh in a salad?
Unless you’re planning on eating your salad straight after preparing it, you’ll need a solid plan on how you want to keep your avo fresh and appetising.
Let’s dive into some science behind avocados.
Avocados contain polyphenol oxidase, which is the culprit for turning its flesh green to brown when exposed to oxygen.
The trick to maintaining a beautiful, fresh green colour is to protect your avocados from being exposed to the air around it.
Here are some proven storage tricks to keeping avocado fresh in a salad.
Trick #1 – Fresh and crisp bags
If you don’t know about fresh and crisp bags, you’re definitely in for a treat. These bad boys are the kings of keeping fruit, salad and vegetables fresher for longer in the fridge.
By creating a vacuum in the bag and keeping all the air out of its contents, fresh and crisp vegetable bags help keep your produce fresher for up to three weeks.
They’re extremely affordable, easy to use and barely take up any space in your kitchen.
Store an avocado in a fresh and crisp bag and watch it stay fresh and green for longer. You can even store your avocado together with the salad in a fresh and crisp bag as the vacuum within will help maintain freshness.
Trick #2 – Glad wrap it
Don’t have any fresh and crisp bags at hand, that’s okay, turn to glad wrap instead. Simply wrap your avocado smoothly against the flesh and ensure a tight seal.
The better you seal the avocado, the greener it will remain in the fridge.
To keep your avocado fresh, you will have to wrap it separately to your salad when storing it.
Trick #3 – Brush with oil
Given that the idea is to prevent oxygen from touching the flesh of your avocado, a good trick is to brush the exposed parts of the avo with olive oil or vegetable oil.
This helps create a barrier against the oxygen. Follow the storage process by keeping your avocados in a sealed airtight salad container.
This method will help keep it from browning for a day or so.
Trick #4 – Pair your avocado with an onion
Beyond being a yummy addition to guacamole,
onions are an avocado’s best friend when fighting oxidisation.
As onions contain sulphur, it helps in slowing down the oxidisation process that causes avocados to go brown.
All you have to do is chop us some fresh onion and place it in an airtight salad keeper container followed by your avocado on top.
The easiest way to keep your avocados fresher for longer is hands down the fresh and crisp bags method. In the meantime, having a few additional tricks up your sleeve to help keep your avos fresh for salads can come in handy when you’re short on fresh and crisp bags supply!