Imagine this: you just woke up from a long nap dreaming about having some banana and yogurt as a snack. However, when you cut open your banana, you realize it’s all mushy and gross. “Why is it already brown, I just bought it yesterday?” you may ask yourself. Contrarily, you may cut into an avocado hoping to have some avocado toast for breakfast, only to discover it is not ripe enough. Fortunately, there are several tips you can use to help you pick the proper fruits at the store. Below are some of the common fruits people struggle to buy at the supermarket.
Bananas
It is best to buy bananas at the store when they are slightly green as they will only take 1-3 days to ripen. You know they are ripe and ready to eat when the peel is slightly spotted and soft to the touch. However, even if you waited a bit too long to eat your bananas and they are now overripe, don’t worry! There are still many recipes where those bananas you were planning on throwing away can come to amazing use. Click here to see some amazing recipes.
Avocados
Avocados are one of the most popular fruits in the world. However, it can be incredibly difficult to pick the right ones for you at the supermarket. If you are picking avocados to eat in 1-2 days, choose avocados with dark green colour. Likewise, when you apply pressure to the avocados, they should still be slightly firm. However, if you are picking avocados to eat in 3-4 dya, select green avocados. The avocados should also be smooth and firm when pressure is applied.
Cantaloupe
Many people say to simply smell for sweetness when determining whether a cantaloupe is ripe. While that is true, who wants to sniff a cantaloupe in the store? Fortunately, there are other ways to test for ripeness. For instance, it should give a bit when you press gently and it should feel heavier than it looks. Moreover, when you tap it, it should sound hollow.
Lemons and limes
When it comes to acidic fruits, the weight of the fruit is a great indicator of its ripeness. The lemon should have firm skin and be a bright yellow colour. Likewise, ripe limes will range from a dark green to a yellow-green colour.
Pineapple
Who doesn’t love a delicious pineapple? The best way to determine a pineapple’s ripeness is through its smell. A ripe pineapple will have a sweet smell, whereas an overripe one will be vinegary and an underripe one will have no smell.
Hopefully, these tips will save you from eating an over or underripe fruit again. If you want to see more tips for determining the ripeness of different fruits, click here.