How to Store Avocado

Where should you keep them until you’re ready to eat? Can you put avocados in the fridge? Do you know how to freeze avocados? Keep them at peak freshness with helpful tips for how, where and how long to store the creamy, dreamy fruit.

Expert tips from the Taste of Home Test Kitchen

• If your avocado isn’t ready: Ever cut one open only to find that it isn’t ripe yet? It’s not a lost cause. Just sprinkle some lemon or lime juice over the part you’ve cut, put humpty back together and seal with plastic wrap. Stick it in the fridge until it’s softened and ready to eat.
• If it’s ripe but you’re not ready: Keep it in the fridge for two or three days. You can do the same if you’re looking for how to keep avocados from ripening.
• If it’s firm and unripe: Save the cutting for when it’s softened up—you can keep your unripe avocados at room temperature on the counter for four or five days before it’s ripened.

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How to Store Avocado

What you’ll need

Ingredients

• Avocado
• Onion

Equipment

• Knife
• Small airtight container

Do Avocados Go in the Refrigerator?

Yes—especially if you need to put the brakes on the ripening process and give yourself a few days before using your ripe fruit. Keep in mind, though, that you can only buy a day at most for very ripe avocados in the fridge before they start to go bad.

Will Vinegar Keep Avocado From Turning Brown?

There’s not much worse than using half an avocado and tossing the rest in the fridge only to find brown or black slices when you’re ready to use them. Yes, you can toss slices in vinegar to help stop the browning, but you’re better off placing a few slices of raw onion in the bottom of your container. Place the avocado slices on top and seal. The magic at work here comes from the same sulfur fumes that cause you to cry when you’re cutting onions—the sulfur stops any discoloring, leaving you with perfectly green slices.

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How to Freeze Avocados

What you’ll need

Ingredients

• Avocado

Equipment

• Knife
• Zip-top freezer bags

As far as produce goes, avocados aren’t cheap. On the plus side, you can stock up when you find them at a good price. Then, slice your avocados, place slices in a zip-top freezer bag, squeeze out as much air as possible and toss in the freezer. While the texture of the slices won’t be the same as a fresh avocado, their softness will make them just right for guacamole or other sauces.

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How Do You Stop Guacamole From Turning Brown?

What you’ll need

Ingredients

• Guacamole
• Water

Equipment

• Airtight container
• Spoon

Can you make guacamole ahead? Sure can. To keep the dip nice and green, just cover it with a little water. The extra layer shields it from oxygen and banishes browning.

• In an airtight container, use a spoon to flatten the surface of your guacamole and remove any air pockets.
• Place spoon to top of guac, gently pour in about a half inch of water to cover the surface.

Refrigerate, covered, up to two days. To serve, carefully pour off water and stir.