If the stem is still attached, pull it off. If there is any resistance or the area where the stem was is light green, the avocado is not ready. If it easily comes off and the area around the stem is bright green, it's perfect. If the area is a brown to dark green color, the avocado is overripe.
How to Ripen an Avocado Quickly. You can speed up the avocado-ripening process with a piece of fruit. Put an avocado in a paper bag with a banana, an apple or a kiwi and fold to seal. These fruits produce ethylene gas, a plant hormone that aids ripening.
To speed up the ripening process, place the avocados in a paper bag. This process is similar to how you ripen bananas. Certain fruits, like bananas and avocados, produce ethylene gas which causes them to soften after they're harvested.
To ripen an avocado quickly on the counter, place it in a bowl or paper bag next to an apple or banana. To make the avocado ripen in 1-2 days, place it in a paper bag with a banana or two. Avoid using plastic bags that stifle the fruit.
Do not microwave your avocados or put your avocados in the oven to try to ripen them faster. If you do, the microwave or oven may soften the flesh of the fruit a little which may make it 'seem' ripe, but it isn't. The avocado will taste unripe and won't have the creaminess or buttery, nutty flavor we all know and love.
A bowl of rice can work too
There is one more quick-ripening method that avocado producers like Avocados from Mexico recommend, though it's one I haven't personally tried. Instead of putting your hard avocados into a paper bag, smother them in a bowl of uncooked rice.
You can harness its powers at home by putting your avocados in a paper bag and rolling up the top to seal it. The paper bag will trap the ethylene close around the avocados and — bingo — speed up ripening. For an extra dose of ripening power, add an apple or kiwi (or both).
After speaking with avocado experts and running some in-house tests, we learned that avocados can continue to ripen after they've been cut. In fact, as long as you store the cut fruit properly and give it a few extra days, it will be just as creamy and rich as if you had opened it at peak ripeness.
Place hard avocados on a countertop in direct sunlight. The warmer temperature should help speed up the natural ripening of the avocados. Check for ripeness daily by gently squeezing the fruit. Use once the avocado yields slightly when you give it a squeeze, usually within two or three days.
The bottom line: If you need your avocados to ripen sooner rather than later, keep them on the counter. Otherwise, for better quality, you're better off putting them in the fridge and allowing them to ripen slowly. In either case, store the ripened fruit in the fridge to extend shelf life.
Countertop, Fridge or Freezer? Until they're fully ripe, avocados should be stored at room temperature. Placing an unripe avocado in the refrigerator will slow the ripening process, but the same concept applies to ripe avocados: put them in the refrigerator to keep them at their prime ripeness for longer.
If you would rather speed up your avocado's ripening process more naturally, Avocados from Mexico recommends finding a dry spot where your avocado can bask in direct sunlight to help it naturally ripen faster.
By storing the avocados in water, users suggest, you're slowing down the oxidation process and keeping the fruit ripe and green for longer. But in reality, the practice doesn't hold water, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — and it could have serious health effects.
Place your avocado in a brown paper bag, along with a banana. This trick may seem bananas, but it works! Ripe bananas contain a natural plant hormone called ethylene, which triggers ripening in mature fruit. The paper bag traps the ethylene gas that's produced by the fruit and speeds up the ripening process.
For even quicker ripening, add an apple, banana, or a tomato to the bag. Ripe fruits contain a natural plant hormone called ethylene, which triggers ripening in mature fruit.
Bright green: If your avocado has a bright green color, this means that it is still around four to seven days from being ripe. Avocados this color will typically be hard to the touch and will need to rest on the counter for a few days—maybe even a week—before you can eat them. Underripe avocados tend to lack flavor.
Avocados. The refrigerator will slow avocados in the ripening process, so unless you're stacked with too many avocados for your weekly use, keep them out at room temperature. The cold temperature also hardens the texture of a ripe avocado, which might not be ideal for some when it comes to mealtime.
You know the dreadful feeling of committing to some avocado on toast and then discovering it's way too hard to mash? Well, this is a great hack for ripening an already cut avocado! Just coat both halves of your avocado with fresh lemon juice (lime will work too), then put back together and wrap tightly in cling film.
A slightly underripe avocado should ripen overnight. Less ripe avocados may take more time, but the ethylene will generally halve the normal ripening timeline. Newspaper works too. If you don't have a paper bag, wrapping avocados in newspaper and placing them in a plastic bag also works well.
Once you've let the feeling of disappointment wash over you, you may wonder, "Can you eat an unripe avocado?" The short answer is yes — unripe avocados have the same nutritional value, and if you're not allergic to avocados, eating an unripe one is perfectly safe.
Cut open the avocado and remove the pit. Immediately coat the flesh of one half with fresh lemon juice. Wrap the avocado half in plastic wrap and place in the fridge. It's as easy as one, two, three.