Aussie mum’s genius hack for ripening avocados in minutes

If you’ve come home from the grocery store with a rock-hard avocado, don’t fret! One Aussie mum has shared her genius hack for ripening avocados immediately — so, you’ll be able to make like a Millennial and lavishly smash it over toast in no time.

Home cook Carolyn shared her trick in the popular Facebook group Air Fryer Recipes Australia, where it got the big thumbs up from fellow members. The mum said she discovered the hack when she couldn’t find a ripe avocado at the shops, revealing all you need is some foil and an air fryer. However, if you don’t have an air fryer on hand, the original hack suggests using an oven instead.

“Air fryers, is there anything they can’t do?!” she captioned the post. “Tonight we had tacos for dinner and I couldn’t find a ripe avo for the guacamole (typical). I’d heard you can ripen them in the oven so I googled it and did it in the [air fryer] instead.”

To get started, she wrapped the avocado in foil, turned her air fryer to 200 degrees Celsius and popped the avocado in for 10 minutes. “It wasn’t a super hard avo but too hard to mash,” she said.

Carolyn added the heat did change the taste and texture of the avocado a bit, which is why she recommends letting it cool in the fridge before using. However, she did reassure group members that it didn’t change the colour of the avocado, saying it “was the normal green” colour inside.

“I’d always rather a normal ripe avocado but this works in a pinch,” she concluded.

Group members were equally impressed by the super-easy hack, with one writing: “This is a handy tip I’ll be keeping up my sleeve.”

Others shared their own avocado-ripening hacks, with one explaining that they pop a ripe banana with an avocado in a brown paper bag at room temperature and leave overnight. “Works every time!” they said.

“Put hard avos in a sealed container with a banana and it will ripen the avo in a day or two,” another said. Meanwhile, one commenter said you can also ripen an avocado in the microwave by heating it for 10 to 30 seconds, depending on the size.

“This works for bananas too if you want to make banana bread and don’t have any over ripened bananas,” another added.