Don’t Throw Away Your Overripe Fruit! Use It This Way Instead
Never toss a carton of mushy strawberries again.
During the summer, it may seem nearly impossible to keep fruit in your kitchen for more than a few days. Rising temps, unfortunately, tend to cause fruit to go bad much quicker than it typically would. But if you’ve previously met your mushy, overripe strawberries with dismay in the past, fret no more, because they’re about to serve a totally exciting new purpose.
Turn Overripe Fruit Into a Tasty Snack
This little snack tip comes from the folks over at LifeHacker, who discovered that mashing overripe fruit with a potato masher makes it the perfect topping for ice cream.
Using a potato masher for overripe fruits like berries, bananas, and stone fruits like peaches turns them into the most deliciously sweet topping for plain vanilla ice cream. Think of it like a DIY natural fruit compote without all the added sugar.
To do it, simply place your overripe fruit (peeled, if it has skin on it) into a bowl and mash with your potato masher. A potato masher is the perfect size for mashing fruit and will make this process quick! (But if you don’t have one, you can just use a fork.) You can either mash the fruit alone and top your ice cream with it, or mash the fruit and ice cream together.
To be clear, you definitely shouldn’t be mashing any fruit that has visible mold on it, or fruit that is clearly rotted (if it has a super slimy texture or weird odor, it’s time to toss it!). On the other hand, your fruit should be just a little more ripe than you’d prefer to eat it — basically, unattractive to the eye, but still safe to eat. Fruit at this stage is extra sweet, and smushing it with a potato masher also helps get the juices out!
When trying this hack, you can go with traditional vanilla ice cream which tends to taste great with most fruit, or experiment with other flavors like chocolate or mint. Don’t think you’re limited to just ice cream, either. Mashed ripe fruit makes a great topping for healthier options like plain greek yogurt and oatmeal, too!
So before your throw away those mushy strawberries and peaches, give this snack hack a try. Not only will it help you reduce food waste, but it will also help you get more servings of fruit into your diet! What’s not to love?
