Unripe Bananas? Grab Your Air Fryer For A Quick Fix

Bananas are such a useful fruit — apart from being edible (which is true of most fruits), you can use their peels in your skincare routine, and they can even help other fruits and vegetables to ripen. (A banana or two in a brown paper bag is the secret to speed-ripening an avocado.) What if the bananas themselves are unripe, though? In that case, one way you can fix the problem is to bake them in an air fryer.

You won't need to preheat your air fryer for banana ripening, but you will need to line the basket to prevent any liquid released by the fruit from leaking out and making a mess. (Foil will work fine for this purpose if you don't have air fryer liners on hand.) You might also need to chop off the stems in order for the bananas to fit. Bake them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about eight to 10 minutes, by which time the peels should be black and starting to split. There is a bit of a catch here, as the bananas inside will be too soft for eating as-is, so you won't want to use them as the base for banana splits. However, they'll work just fine for banana bread or any other recipe where the fruit is mashed.

Not everyone owns an air fryer, but most kitchens do come equipped with ovens. If you can cook something in an air fryer, there's a good chance you can bake it as well — air fryers are basically countertop convection ovens, after all. This also applies to ripening bananas, although it will take a bit longer as you'll need to preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and it may take up to an hour for the bananas to blacken. The longer you cook them, though, the better the flavor will be. Another upside to the oven is that you can soften multiple bananas at a time.

What about the microwave? It's possible, though you're still limited by space. For speed softening, microwave your bananas in 30-second intervals for a few minutes. First, however, poke a few holes in the skin with a fork so the steam can escape and you don't wind up with exploding banana bombs.

If you have enough time, the absolute best way to ripen bananas for flavor and texture is to use a brown paper bag. Once you've bagged the bananas, fold the top down to keep the bag closed, then let them sit at room temperature for about two days as the ethylene gas they release ripens them on their own. Here, the skins shouldn't blacken but will instead develop a few dark spots, as is common for ripe bananas. The bananas will also stay firm, so they'll do well in that banana split or for slicing up to make banana pudding.