Alex Guarnaschelli's Avocado-Buying Tip Is So Genius, We Wish We'd Thought Of It First

We all hate to be that person at the grocery store. You know, the one who awkwardly hovers over the avocado section, trying to sneakily squeeze each fruit to make sure we pick the best one. Well, thankfully, celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli has shared her top advice for avocado shopping, and there's one trick in particular we wish we'd thought of sooner.

She discussed how to spot a good avocado in a TikTok video, saying, "I'll buy one ready-to-eat and one not ready-to-eat. That way I'm not lying in bed like 'I have to eat that avocado.'" Unripe avocados are great if you don't want to eat them right away, but if you want to make a crave-worthy guacamole, then you need to grab a darker one that has some give. So Guarnaschelli's trick of buying one dark and softer and one light and harder means you'll have one that's ready to go, but you won't be worried about getting through a bunch of avocados before they go bad. 

She also advocates opting for the uglier looking avocados, which tend to be riper. "When you go to the supermarket, your first instinct is to buy what looks best to you," she says before picking up a bright green avocado and pointing out, "But you could play baseball with this. It's rock hard. It's not ready to eat." For a ready-to-eat avocado, she picks out a dark brown one, that's less pretty but also less hard.

You can store your avocados together, but try to keep the ripe one out of direct sunlight. Better yet, put it in the fridge to keep it fresh, especially if you're going to wait a day or two to use it. This becomes especially important once you've cut into it. If you want to save half an avocado, coat it with lemon juice or water and cover it before placing in the fridge.

As for the unripe one, if you decide you want to use it sooner rather than later, just place it in a paper bag. The ethylene gas that gets released from the fruit will become trapped in the bag and help soften it quicker. Tin foil also works to help ripen an avocado.

If you're trying to figure out if either avocado has gone bad, you'll have to slice it open and check the flesh. If the flesh is dark brown or black, it's probably time to toss it. If you're still hovering over the avocados in the store trying to figure it out, Guarnaschelli recommends avoiding anything too mushy. Try not to overthink it though, if you buy two, hopefully at least one will work out. And if you want to know how to remove an avocado pit safely, stay away from the knife drawer, and pick up a spoon instead.