Storing Vegetables in Refrigerator - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. For storing raw vegetables in the refrigerator to retain their freshest state, there are a couple of things you can do for different types of vegetables. Harder vegetables, like carrots, can go right into your crisper drawer. Make sure you keep it nice and clean, and, if you can, line it with a paper towel. Moisture is vegetables enemy so you want to make sure that you keep as much moisture out of those drawers as possible. That is why it is best to have specific moisture levels that keep your vegetables fresh. For things like lettuces, do not wash them when you get home. Always wash them right before you use them, because, again, moisture kills vegetables. What I do is take some paper towels and I roll the lettuce in paper towels and put it in a zip-lock bag. This keeps my lettuce nice and dry and it will stay fresh much, much longer. For bag lettuces, like spinach, or mixed greens, once you open it, you can just take a paper towel and put it down in there. And that will help keep your vegetables nice and fresh. For things like eggplant and zucchini, again, I definitely recommend the crisper, as well as celery. But, sometimes I cannot keep crisp celery in my crisper drawer so I just keep it on the bottom shelf where it will stay nice and cool, but not toward the back. Make sure that your vegetables do not go toward the back of your refrigerator. That is where it is the coldest, and they do not need to be kept in the deep freeze, just chilled. Now, something that you may not know is tomatoes do not get refrigerated. Tomatoes contain a flavor chemical that actually turns off when it gets cold. So always keep your tomatoes, no matter what size, or whether they are heirloom or regular tomatoes from the grocery store, keep them on the counter in a nice bowl, out of direct sunlight, and they will stay fresher and flavorful a lot longer. A lot of times, when you are at the grocery store, you will see vegetables getting a nice rain shower, and that is fine since they are out in the air where that moisture can evaporate. That does keep them fresh. However, once you get them home and they are trapped inside your fridge. That moisture can kill them because it is trapped inside with the vegetables. So make sure that they get circulation if they are wet, or bring them home, dry them off a little bit, and then put them in your fridge. And those are my tips for how to keep your vegetables fresh in the refrigerator.
