Here's how to get green bananas ripe within an hour

It must be familiar: you feel like eating a banana, but the only bananas left for sale are green and unripe. Although they are perfectly edible, they often have a bitter taste and a firm texture. Do you want to ripen your bananas faster? We will tell you simple methods to transform your green bananas into ripe, yellow delicacies!

Yentl Feenstra-Atefeh

13 Jan '25

Bananas

Bananas are incredibly healthy and a popular fruit in the Netherlands. There is a lot of vitamin B6, vitamin C and potassium in these yellow rascals, as well as being an important source of fiber. Plus, they are sweet, which makes them quick energy and easy to have on the go. The riper a banana gets, the sweeter it tastes.

There's just one small problem. Eating a tasty banana often involves quite a bit of timing. Either they are too green, or the fruit already contains dark spots and is overripe. Have you bought bananas that are too green? Here's what you can do to give them a hand with ripening.

Ripe bananas in one hour

Want your bananas ripe and sweet the same day? The oven can help. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees and place the bananas on a baking sheet or rack. Let them bake for an hour, keeping an eye on them to prevent burning. After an hour, the bananas will be deliciously soft, ripe and sweet. Remove them from the oven and let them cool in the refrigerator for a while. They are then perfect to incorporate into a banana bread or other dish!

Ripe bananas in two days

If you don't need a ripe banana right away, but want to ripen faster than usual, the paper bag trick works well. Ethylene, a natural gas released from fruit, speeds up the ripening process of bananas. Place bananas in a paper bag and add other fruits, such as an apple, pear or avocado. The ethylene gas released from these fruits helps the bananas ripen faster, and within two days they are perfectly edible!

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