During this pandemic we’ve had to learn how to pull back and conserve our food and our money. Cosmopolitan magazine offers several ideas that may help you in the kitchen.
- Put paper towels in the salad drawer
Lining your crisper with a few sheets of kitchen roll absorbs the condensation that the veggies generate as they chill. Excess moisture can make your fresh foods wilt and much faster, so the paper keeps them fresher for longer - Don’t separate bananas before eating
You may think you’re being super productive packaging your ‘nanas into day-to-day portions, but actually the trick to stop them going brown is to keep them together as long as possible. Wrap the stems of the bananas in clingfilm when you first buy them, and only snap one off when you’re ready to eat it. This should give you 3-5 extra days of perfectly ripe banana joy. - Put an apple in your bag of potatoes
Sprouted potatoes are at the top of nobody’s to-eat list. It turns out the best way to prevent them turning into a reject from the cast list of Alien is to keep an apple in the bag – apples produce ethylene gas, which keeps potatoes fresher and firmer, and ready for jacket-and-mash duties for a few more weeks. - But keep apples away from other fruits and veggies
Ethylene gas may be good for potatoes, but it’s bad for almost everything else. Keep apples out of the fruit bowl (and in a plastic bag in the fridge) and you should suddenly find that your other purchases keep much better. - Wash berries in vinegar
Because fate is cruel, berries are both a) pretty much the most expensive fruit and b) the quickest to go mouldy by a mile. You can extend their life by giving them a bath in 1 cup of vinegar and 3 cups of water before you put them in the fridge – this kills the mold spores and bacteria that turn them fuzzy. Just be sure to dry them thoroughly before storing. - DON’T refrigerate your tomatoes
Seriously. You’ll kill their flavor, and their juicy texture doesn’t survive so well in the cold either. To make the most of your tomatoes, keep them on a counter to allow them to ripen them to their full potential. - Wrap celery in foil
In the plastic wrapper you get from the supermarket, celery will last a week or two at most – annoying if you only use a couple of stalks at a time. Swap the original packaging for a sheet of aluminium foil – it lets the gas that spoils your celery escape, rather than trapping it like plastic, so the celery stays crisp - Let avocado ripen at room temperature
Keep your avocados out til they’re ripe (you know they’re there when they give a little when pressed), then put them in the fridge to halt the process and keep them ready to eat. Once you’ve cut them, keep the stone in the remaining half squeeze on a little lemon juice to preserve them even further. - Put your onions in tights
Put onions in a pair of hose one at a time, knot between each bulb and keep them in a dark, dry place until you need them. - Ice your greens
Rehydrate and refresh your leaves by separating them and tossing them into a sinkful of iced water for anywhere from 5-30 mins, depending on how sad they’re looking.
Social Media