Greens Wilting Three Days After You Buy Them? How to Store Them in the Fridge
If you store vegetables in the fridge the right way, they stay fresh much longer. You buy a big bag of vegetables at the weekend market, and by Tuesday the greens are soggy and the coriander has collapsed. Wasted money, wasted trip. Most of the time the problem is how they were stored, not the vegetables themselves.
Vegetables spoil fast for three main reasons: trapped water makes them rot, lost water makes them wilt, and ripening fruit nearby speeds up both.
Table of Contents: store vegetables in the fridge
Do not wash until you cook
Put freshly washed greens straight into the fridge and the water caught between the leaves will rot them from the inside. Store them dry and wash right before cooking. If you want to wash ahead, dry them properly with a salad spinner or a clean towel. When you store vegetables in the fridge well, you waste less money too.
Line with paper, store in a box or bag
For leafy greens like lettuce, bok choy or water spinach: pull off bruised leaves, wrap in a layer of paper towel, and put them in a lidded box or a zip bag left slightly open. The paper absorbs moisture, the box stops the leaves from drying out. Replace the paper when it gets damp.
Herbs are different. Trim coriander and spring onions and stand them in a glass of water like cut flowers, loosely covered with a plastic bag, in the fridge. Basil does not like the cold and keeps longer outside the fridge in a cool spot. The way you store vegetables in the fridge decides how fast they wilt.
Keep greens away from ripening fruit
Apples, bananas, avocados and tomatoes give off ethylene gas as they ripen. Ethylene makes leafy greens yellow and wilt faster. Fruit on one shelf, vegetables on another. If your fridge has a crisper drawer, use it for vegetables. Store vegetables in the fridge this way once and it becomes a habit.
Eat them in order
When you get home, sort by how long each item lasts:
- Eat first: thin leafy greens such as lettuce, water spinach, mustard greens, herbs.
- Midweek: broccoli, green beans, cucumber.
- End of the week: carrots, radishes, pumpkin, potatoes.
Greens that are a bit limp but not slimy can be soaked in cold water for 15 to 20 minutes and will perk up somewhat. If they are slimy or smell off, throw them out.
After your next shop, store vegetables in the fridge using these tips. Learn more about the refrigerator, or read how to read food labels in 30 seconds.