How to use a salad spinner to make better salads

I’ve long argued that if you really want to show off, you should learn how to make the perfect green salad. It’s labor intensive and not for the reason you might think. Before you can even think about dressings, mix-ins and garnishes, you need to address your vegetables.

Babying lettuce is the most important part of making a salad, and also the part you’re most likely to skip. Vegetables are first soaked in an ice bath, drained and dried, usually on a clean towel. (When the towel is damp, replace it with a dry one. That’s all.) This painstaking process serves two very important purposes. Drying actually sticks the dressing to each leaf (and doesn’t dilute it).

The good news is that you Home cooks don’t have to do that to create a green salad worthy of a fancy restaurant. All you need is a little ice and your trusty salad spinner. Here’s how to get started:

How to make a restaurantqqualityusing a salad spinner

Remove the basket insert from the salad spinner and fill the bowl with ice. Exact amount is not important.Aim for somewhere between a few cubes and a full trayNext, add vegetables, large pieces of fresh herbs, and thinly sliced ​​tough vegetables (such as onions, radishes, carrots, celery, and snap peas) to the basket. Place back in bowl over ice and add cold water to cover. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then lift the basket out of the bowl, pour ice water over it, and spin the whole shebang well to dry. I’m ready to get dressed.

In addition to making better salads, using a salad spinner this way makes it much easier and faster to toss a salad together. It’s also a way. (Once I understood the ice bath technique, I started actually using My first salad spinner in years.