Bananas are cheap and versatile, making them a shopping list staple, but their shelf life lets them down.
The soft yellow fruit is often hung atop a fruit bowl for a few days but left too long, and bananas turn into a mushy brown mess.
Food waste expert Kate Hall has a crafty solution for keeping bananas edible for months on end with the help of a freezer.
But her storage hack isn’t a traditional one. It involves a much more clever way of storing bananas and actually adds to the flavour rather than just preserving it.
Sharing her insight on the Channel 5 show ‘Fresh Vs Frozen: Which is Better?’, Kate revealed the ‘split’ technique she adopts to store bananas for months on end.
Kate explained: “When we stop and think about how far a banana for example has travelled; the land, the water, the energy, the transportation, the packaging, everything that has gone into that piece of food that we’re letting go off and go into the bin, has an enormous impact on our planet.”
The food waste expert noted that while you can put a whole banana into the freezer, “it does turn black and look rather disgusting when you defrost it”.
Instead of recommending chopping the banana into round slices to freeze it, Kate suggested a different method; splitting it.
She explained: “You can just slice it on the tray but also, if you pop your finger into the end of the banana, it will separate into three fingers and then they are just amazing dipped in chocolate.”
Bananas can be frozen for up to six months, but for best quality, they should be used within the first two to three. Frozen bananas can develop freezer burn if left in minus temperatures for too long, but they are still safe to eat.
Proper storage for Kate’s split chocolate bananas is easy to follow. Just line a baking tray of freezer drawer with greaseproof paper and lay the three ‘fingers’ with the flat side facing up.
Melt some chocolate of your choice in a bowl (either over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave), the drizzle or spoon it onto the flat side of the fruit.
Leave to cool a little before putting the bananas into the freezer unwrapped (just leave them on the baking paper).
When set, transfer the bananas to an airtight container or ziplock bag – this step is important to reduce freezer burn and leave them in the freezer for a few months.
