We've all been there. You look on your counter, or in your fridge, and you realize you've let another veggie go bad. So long sacrificial bag of mixed greens.
Maybe you forgot you had that red onion. Or perhaps you bought a whole package of carrots for chicken soup, but then had no plan for the surplus. Or a story as old as time: The avocados went from doorstop-hard to overly ripe in half a day.
Fortunately, TikTok — a bastion for food creators, recipes, and cooking hacks — is here to help. There are some creative, if perhaps unknown to many, ways to store food. Here are six quick ways to store veggies from TikTok that'll make your produce last longer
1. Carrots
Take, for instance, those carrots that wilted. TikTok has a fix for that, courtesy of the TikTok food influencer, Emily Mariko. According to her, you simply wash your carrots right after you get them. Cut them into your desired shape and size, then store them in container filled with water. This apparently keeps the carrots from losing their snap or turning into those soggy carrots we all love to hate.
2. Celery
TikTok will also tell you to do the same trick for celery. This viral post from Feel Good Foodie also recommends storing your celery in water. The goal is the same: maintaining the fresh snap of the produce. People really seem to care about storing veggies properly. Seriously, this video about celery — perhaps the most tasteless, boring food in the world — has more than 100,000 likes.
3. Onions and potatoes
Weirdly, TikTok has also taught me some food science. Ethylene gas is apparently the mortal enemy of your veggies. And lots of fruits produce it, meaning you have to be careful about what produce is stored together. You don't want to keep apples, which produce ethylene, around sweet potatoes, for instance, because it'll speed up the sweet potatoes' ripening process. A viral TikTok from the account nomlist pointed out that onions, if stored next to potatoes, would quicken the ripening process for the potatoes because the onions produce ethylene. These two veggies feel like things that are often stored together but definitely should not. Onions and potatoes should both be stored in a dark, dry, and cool space. Just not together.
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5. Tomatoes
Of course, not all the TikTok lessens are so science-y. There's this viral tip from cattyabella, which recommends storing tomatoes on the counter, stem down, until they start to go bad. Then, and only then, can you move them to the fridge.
6. Avocado
There are also some ridiculously simple hacks that are so obvious they make you wonder why you never did them.
You can save a ripe avocado by storing it in water. A TikTok from @getcookingitalia suggested taking a halved avocado and storing it, flesh side down, in water. This will apparently keep it from turning brown for about two days.
My Nguyen suggested freezing avocados that have nearly gone bad. The soft and super-ripe avocados will basically stay in that state until thawed. Once defrosted, the texture of the avocado might be a bit mushy, but still perfect for some guacamole.
And keep in mind, all these tips are just scratching the surface of all the tips TikTok has for storing veggies. Honestly, just search for a type of produce on TikTok and you're bound to find something good.
This is the sort of content TikTok is best at. The short-form nature of videos lends itself to hacks and tricks. There's something satisfying about watching like 20 seconds of video and coming away smarter. TikTok is also an absolute haven for food content and organization content, so it makes sense the two forms would merge into viral food storage videos.
Regardless, we're all better off for it. Just remember, keep those onions separate from your potatoes.
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