Avocados are versatile, healthy, and delicious, but they can also be a little bit finicky if you’re not used to working with them. Here are five things you should always be sure not to do if you want to make the most of your avocado experience:
Don’t Refrigerate Until They’re Ripe
Never store your avocados in the refrigerator. They ripen best when left on a countertop, and even quicker when in a brown paper bag. Once they’re ripe, however, you can keep them in the fridge.
Don’t Use a Sharp Knife to Remove the Pit
In order to remove the big pit from the center of an avocado, you need to first slice it completely in half around the pit, then firmly thwack the knife into the pit, twisting carefully to remove. It’s easy to slip and cut yourself, so be extra careful and use a dull knife.
Don’t Skip the Lemon Juice
If you’re not planning on eating the avocado right away and don’t want it to turn brown, give it a squirt of lemon or lime. It’ll help preserve the color, and certainly doesn’t hurt the taste.
Don’t Store It Improperly
If you’re only using half of an avocado, tightly wrap it in plastic wrap, with the plastic coming into direct contact with the cut side, and store it in a zip-top bag in the fridge. When you’re ready to eat it, scrape or cut any brown flesh away.
Don’t Juice It
Like bananas, avocadoes don’t to very well in the juicer, as you might imagine. Even though you can’t juice an avocado, it is possible to extract oil from it, but that’s best left to the professionals.
