salad at home?

[my3sonsagn]

This is probably one of those "I can't believe she can't figure this out on her own!" questions, but I figure if I'm going to ask a question like this then the anonymous nature of the Dis is the best place to do it.

I love salad (specifically dark-leaf lettuce salads), but the bagged salads are soooo expensive, so I'd love to be able to make them at home. No big deal, right? Wrong (for me anyway). Issue 1: Washing and drying lettuce - no matter how well I try to dry the lettuce it's still soaking wet (wet lettuce = yuck, imo). I've tried the salad spinner, and I must be doing it wrong because my lettuce stays wet even though it certainly slings enough water all over the rest of my kitchen that it SHOULD be dry; the spinner doesn't matter anymore, though, because two of my kids found it in the cabinet and turned it into an outside toy. Issue 2: Once I get my lettuce dry, how should I store it to keep it from getting wilty and nasty? I've never gotten that far since I can't figure out how to get the (*&(_&* lettuce dry to begin with, but I'd like to know just in case I can conquer the drying issue.

Can someone spare some help for the salad impaired?

 

[dgthree]

Was your salad spinner closed tightly? They usually work, as long as the water is contained in the spinner.

But... since you said you didn't have one any more, here's what I would do. Wash your lettuce & lay some paper towel or tea towels out on the counter. Plop the washed leaves onto the towel and roll up gently. The towels should absorb a lot of the moisture. Don't press too hard, or you'll break the leaves, and start them on the road to limpness. You can put some string or rubber bands around the roll & pop in into the fridge to crisp up a bit, but not much more than a few hours. Otherwise, it will get wilted again.

I remember reading somewhere that people put lettuce in a clean pillowcase & spin it over their heads to simulate the centrifugal force of the salad spinner for removing water. That said, if it were me, I'd just go out & buy another spinner. =)

Ok, just went a'Googling, and found this snippet from CHOW.
I know this will cause some uproar, but this method will keep your greens (esp. hardy ones) fresh for WEEKS!!!
Soak in ice cold water, in a big sink (laundry if possible) Let the greens dry thoroughly on towels (like an old bath towel), for a few hours. Then wrap tightly in a single layer in another clean, dry towel (old tea towels work well) and place in a plastic bag. This works especially well with romaine lettuce. It works less well the more delicate your greens, but it still works.

Here's a link to the whole thread:http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/283829

 

[Praying Colonel]

We had a salad spinner like this one which didn't work well. We bought this one as a replacement and it's made all the difference.

As far as storing, the salad spinner we just bought doubles as a container for the lettuce and we get about a week's worth out of the lettuce, which IMHO is all we can reasonably expect. I've also had good luck with placing the cleaned lettuce in a large zip-lock baggie and pressing all of the air out of the baggie before closing.

 

[Piglet843]

I know people that buy that prewashed stuff and use it just out of the bag - without washing it any further.

But I don't eat it without washing it again. People look at me like I'm growing a second head when I tell them that....

So if you are one of those people - the prewashed stuff is an option...

That said - I have a $25 Oxogrips salad spinner - works great. I have to dump the bowl and spin again several times to get all the water out. Then I put the lid back on and store the whole thing in the fridge. In a few hours - all is dry.
Keeps like this for a week for me

 

[PiperPizzaz]

That said - I have a $25 Oxogrips salad spinner - works great. I have to dump the bowl and spin again several times to get all the water out. Then I put the lid back on and store the whole thing in the fridge. In a few hours - all is dry.
Keeps like this for a week for me

I have this same one and I love it. I also just make sure I dump the water and just put the whole thing in the fidge too and it stays fresh for a long time.

Otherwise I don't know I had the same issues and that is why I bought that spinner.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I only use Romaine Hearts. I cut the ends off, separate and rinse the leaves, shake them, and roll them up in a clean dish towel. Then I lightly tap it around to jiggle off as much water as possible. I can honestly say that I have never completely dried lettuce, and have never even thought about it until now. I put the leaves in a ziplock bag and put it in the vegetable bin in the fridge. I have had it stay fresh for days doing it this way.

I once worked with a salad fanatic. She would bring a huge ziplock bag of salad and keep it in the fridge at work. She would squeeze out all the air and roll it up tightly. She swore by it.

Piglet 843, I gave my DMIL that same look when she told me she washes her bagged salad.

 

[my3sonsagn]

Thanks for all the tips! I'll check out that OXO spinner (the one I had looked like the Sunbeam one, so maybe that was my problem).

 

[amamax2]

That said - I have a $25 Oxogrips salad spinner - works great. I have to dump the bowl and spin again several times to get all the water out. Then I put the lid back on and store the whole thing in the fridge. In a few hours - all is dry.
Keeps like this for a week for me

We also have this salad spinner and love it (had a cheaper one before that met the same fate as yours with the kids, lol). One trick is to not overload the spinner with lettuce - air needs to be able to circulate through the leaves.

We then put the dry leaves in a ziplock, roll gently to get out the air (think space saver bags!), and put in fridge - keeps lettuce wonderfully crisp for about a week. We have salad several times a week, so it's usually gone within the week.

We've also found that when we make salad, if we keep the "fixings" that get soggy (tomatoes, avocado, etc) out of the lettuce, we can then keep the leftover salad in a ziplock storage container (like tupperware) for a number of days, too, without it getting yucky. We just put the fixings in a separate container to put directly on the salad on our plates.

 

[Tarheel Tink]

I handwash the lettuce in cold water, hold it in my hands over the sink and do a slinging motion to get the excess out. If it is iceberg, I put it in a tupperware lettuce holder I have. Other varieties I lay out on paper towels, roll them up and put in a gallon ziplock that I press most of the excess air out of. It keeps very well for me for a good amount of time.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

I have the OXO also, and it works great for drying the lettuce (it's one of the few kitchen jobs my kids beg to do). I'm glad I read this thread, because I've never even thought about storing my lettuce in the spinner. Will definitely be trying this trick this week!

 

[beansmom]

ok, i will confess...I'm too lazy to do a salad...i mean the lettuce part. I buy the bagged salad (usually two bags at one time)...if I leave it in the plastic bags, it goes bad real quick. If i take it and put it in a 'tupperware' container, it lasts a lot longer.

I REFUSE to sling salad over my head in a pillow case.

 

[CherylA]

I know people that buy that prewashed stuff and use it just out of the bag - without washing it any further.

But I don't eat it without washing it again. People look at me like I'm growing a second head when I tell them that....

So if you are one of those people - the prewashed stuff is an option...

That said - I have a $25 Oxogrips salad spinner - works great. I have to dump the bowl and spin again several times to get all the water out. Then I put the lid back on and store the whole thing in the fridge. In a few hours - all is dry.
Keeps like this for a week for me

I just recently read that the "prewashed" stuff out of the bag is actually quite dirty. It has all kinds of bacteria on it. I never used to wash my bagged lettuce but now I guess I should

 

[puffkin]

If you go to the grocery store in the mornings they usually put coupons on the bagged salads that are close to expiration. I usually get it for a $1 a bag. I can't buy all the ingredients that cheap to make my own unless I am feeding a huge crowd.