Avocado is one of the healthiest and most popular foods in the world. But, unfortunately, it is also a food that can go bad quickly. The best way to keep an avocado from going bad is to store it properly.
Do you know you can store mashed avocado without it getting brown? Here are the ways you can use to store mashed avocado to use later in your smoothies, guacamole, baby food, and dips.
To store mashed avocado, add some lime or lemon juice ( teaspoon of lemon juice for one small avocado and a tablespoon for a large avocado while mashing, and then store it in a glass container and add water. The next day, you can drain the water and use avocado mash.
Don’t keep the avocado mash for a long time in the refrigerator. Instead, use it within 24 hours.
How long does mashed avocado last?
Mashed avocado is prone to get brown quickly. Therefore, you cannot keep it at room temperature. The shelf life of avocado mash depends on the way it is stored.
- Room temperature: Don’t keep the avocado mash at room temperature. Consume it as soon as you mash it. It turns brown quickly.
- Refrigerator: Mashed avocado can be stored for 24 hours in the fridge. Please don’t keep it for a long time. If you prepare it today, use it the next day to create any dish.
- Freezer: You can freeze it for 3-6 months.
Can you freeze mashed avocado?
Of course, we can freeze mashed avocado. To store it, remove the skin, mash the avocado using a fork or blender. Add lemon or line juice while mashing. Lemon juice prevents browning. Lemon juice is full of citric acid, which is full of ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is a natural preservative that helps in keeping browning at bay.
Distribute the mash to a silicon tray with cubes and freeze. Either keep it that way, or you can remove the cubes and store them in a freezer zip bag in the freezer. Always use a small container to store so that you can take out the amount of mash you need for preparing any dish.
How to store a cut avocado fresh?
We have heard that to store a cut avocado, keep the pit in the avocado to help reduce the browning. Pit helps in exposing less surface area of sliced avocado to oxygen. So keeping pit helps reduce browning, but still, a large portion of avocado is exposed to air and changes the color of the pulpy flesh of the avocado.
Here are a few simple ways to store a cut avocado to prolong the shelf life:
These are just a few things I do to prolong the shelf life of the avocado. I hope these tips will help you store your mashed and cut avocado for a long time.
Lemon or lime juice:
Squeeze a small amount of lemon juice on the exposed cut surface of the avocado. Oxygen will come in contact with lemon juice first and helps in reducing the chances of browning. Then keep it in an airtight bag or wrap it with cling wrap to avoid the oxygen coming in contact with the avocado.
Olive oil:
Rub a small amount of oil on the cut side of the avocado. Wrap in a plastic or cling wrap properly to keep all the oxygen. And store in the refrigerator.
In water:
You can also keep the cut avocado in the water. Fill half of the airtight container with water and keep the sliced avocado in a container filled with water with skin side up and cut side touching the base of the container. Please keep it in the fridge. This will help in keeping the cut avocado green.
Mashed avocadoes can be stored at lower temperatures less than 5 degrees for a longer time.