We Love Cooking! + tips

:: Easy Salad Preperation

Unfortunately, the convenience of picking up a pre-washed bag of designer salad leaves has quickly become common place in our modern lives. In fact in 2005, the bagged salad market was growing at 7 percent a year and was estimated to be worth over 1.2 billion dollars a year in the US. However success stories aside, the gases and chemicals sometimes used in the production of these bags, add unnecessary toxins which our bodies can seriously do without. A normal salad leaf will last about 4-5 days in the fridge where as some of these cut salad leaves can keep on looking fresh for a whopping 10 days! That just can't be right!

There is nothing more satisfying than preparing your own salad leaves which you know were produced locally. It's a much greener kitchen practice, and it tastes so much better. I actually got the idea to write a post about this because Sofie had never seen anyone washing salad leaves before me, (she has led a very sheltered life in Sweden ;) and thought maybe there were a few people out there like her who didn't know the easy process to do so.

There are so many exciting salad leaves you can choose from, so be adventurous, it'll make the difference when it comes to plating up! Here's my quick and simple steps to preparing salad:

  1. Fill your sink with cold water.
  2. Remove any packadging from your Salad and cut out the core or seperate the leaves from the stem.
  3. Submerge the leaves in the water and give them a good swill, allow to sit for about 10 mins. (This will allow dirt to settle to the bottom, and the cold water will bring wilted leaves back to life.)
  4. Take a handful of leaves out of the water at a time and spin in a salad spinner until they are completely dry. (Salad Spinners can be picked up relatively cheap, I got mine for 5 Euro. Moisture is not your friend here as it will shorten the life of the stored leaves, so make sure they're dry.)
  5. Store the leaves swaddled in a dry tea towel, or in an airtight zipper bag, in the bottom crisper drawer of your fridge . The leaves will last anywhere between 4-6 days depending on the leaf.
And that's it, about 25 mins work for healthy salad all week long. It's so worth it, and once you start, you will never go back to soggy bags of chlorinated leaves again!

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:: Easy Salad Preperation + tips