A couple of weeks ago, I posted about how much I love salad. I’ve been making them at home lately and dressing made all the difference. While talking to my friend Aimee about the post, I realized that wasn’t entirely true.
This made all the difference.
My biggest complaint about salads at home was that I could never get through the lettuce quick enough. This guy was on sale at Target a few months back for 50% off and I couldn’t resist.
I immediately put my lettuce into it and, well, forgot about it. A week later, I dreaded looking in there because of the inevitable slime. Instead I found some nice crisp lettuce ready for eating…so I did just that.
The way it works is that there is a drain plate on the bottom of the Rubbermaid that keeps the lettuce from sitting in water. This is particularly great if you wash lettuce before storing. You don’t have to dry it off as much because it will drain into the bottom and you can dump it.
I learned another technique for keeping lettuce fresh while working at a coffee shop. Lettuce was delivered in a huge box. There was no way to keep it from getting limp before you got to the last heads of lettuce.
First you need a colander, a head of lettuce, a chopping knife and two trays of ice.
1. Chop off the bottom of the head of lettuce and give the whole thing a good rinse in cold water.
2. Put half a tray of ice in the colander, then place the lettuce over that.
3. Place the remaining ice around and inbetween the leaves.
4. Let sit for 15 minutes in the sink.
5. Remove the lettuce, shake off the water, and place in a food storage container (like the one pictured above).
I like to chop it up before storing, but you don’t have to.
Happy crispy lettuce! :)
Kristin
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I love spinach salads (hate romaine and almost all others) but it often wilts before I can use it all. One night I found a wilty mess at the bottom of my fridge and resolved to put it in a dish because it looked bad. I soaked it in some icy water and 10 minutes later it looked like healthy spinach again! I don’t know if this would work with lettuce, but it’s worth a shot if it’s mostly gone! :)
Wow those things actually work. I kinda want one now. Esp. at university when i am cooking for myself and really can't get through a bag of baby spinach fast enough.
Wow those things actually work. I kinda want one now. Esp. at university when i am cooking for myself and really can't get through a bag of baby spinach fast enough.