As The Salad Spins

A wonderful addition to any budding chef's kitchen is a salad spinner. Have you ever tried to dry lettuce or spinach leaves after a good washing, only to find yourself with a soggy salad 20 minutes later? That's because your leaves aren't dry!! If you pour dressing on already wet leaves, you not only dilute the dressing that you've painstakingly whisked together, but you weigh down the greens, which makes for a sopping, yucky mess!



You've got three pieces to this gadget: a bowl, a basket and the spinner top. The bowl can double as a salad bowl, which is great. The basket fits within the bowl, and this is where the lettuce sits. Rinse the leaves in the basket under some cold water (cold water also firms up any wilt-y leaves and brings out the lovely greenness of fresh veggies). Once you place the top on, and the top could either have a push top, or a pull string, you push/pull so that the basket spins on an axis within the bowl. This spins the water droplets off of the greens!



When you take the top off, you've got a basket full of dried greens in a basket. I usually pour the water out of the bowl, dry it off and pour the dried leaves right back in - who needs to dirty another dish? There you have it, the brilliance that is a salad spinner! Invest in one today and never again have soggy salad ... as long as you don't over-dress!