Simple Tricks to Keep Your Veggies Crisp

There’s nothing more disappointing than coming home with fresh produce, only to have it go bad before you can use it. Luckily there’s an easy way to keep your veggies crisp without too much effort. (Want to save money? Here are a dozen veggies you can grow in pots.)

What Makes Them Go Limp?

When veggies go limp, they’re usually lacking water. “A vegetable that is fully moist and firm will seem both crisp and more tender than the same vegetable limp from water loss,” Harold McGee wrote in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

Airtight storage without access to water is not what you want, because this quickens the ripening process and makes your veggies soften up faster. That’s because the ripening gas known as ethylene remains trapped within the container or bag, breaking down the cell walls more quickly. Check out these common foods you could be storing all wrong.

How to Keep Your Veggies Crisp

There are a couple of different ways to store veggies to keep them fresh and crisp from root to tip for munching, dipping, or cooking with all week long. Here are a few of our favorite hacks.

• Loosely wrap celery or rhubarb stalks into a bundle in aluminum foil without completely shutting the edges so ethylene can escape.
• Chop your celery, carrots or similar root veggies into pieces and submerge in water in a sealed container. This will help them retain moisture and stay fresh before you’re ready to use them!
• Line a storage container with paper towels and throw your mixed greens, spinach, kale or lettuce inside without packing them in too much.
• Pre-chop your cucumber into slices and stack into a rectangular container with a paper towel on top. Store upside-down so the paper towel is on the bottom in your fridge for an extra few days of easy snacking.