What does a salad spinner do

1. Yes, yes. Hey, salad spinners. They’re bigger than you think. I’m probably healthier than average person because I own a salad spinner. At first, maybe you were doubtful about a salad spinner. But it’s the kind of tool that you can’t imagine how you’ve ever lived without. Especially if you eat many salads or cook with green and fresh herbs. Indeed, your intake of these items could have increased once a salad spinner entered your kitchen.

To you, cleaning greens (and even fruit!) is simply not a choice. Yes, salad spinners take up a lot of cabinet space, but they are worth every inch of space. And even if you didn’t have the space for it, you’d find a way to make room because that’s just how necessary it’s in your kitchen.

10 Alternative Uses For Your Salad Spinner

2. Whose salad spinners? No. No. I want my cabinet room to be reserved for real equipment, thanks. A kitchen tool, and a cumbersome one to clean fresh greens; methods are much better, or at least easier. That’s certainly not anything necessary. Although not exactly costly, why pay for another kitchen object that has a relatively unique use when you can get the job done with things you already have, like a colander, hand towels, or even a pillow case?

Pick Your Side!

I’m dropping into these two camps. Although I was initially excited about a salad spinner, the feeling soon waned. I see why people like this tool, but it just doesn’t have enough utility to justify its scale. I trust multi-tools. The more functions a tool or appliance can perform, the greater my appreciation. And sadly, I don’t think the salad spinner cut it. What among salad spinners? Is it your coveted kitchen tools? Or can you get fine without one? Choose your hand, make claims, and we’ll count your points Monday morning and declare a winner! That salad spinner isn’t a donkey!

Learn how to use this tool when you’re not cleaning greens. You may think that salad spinner is one of those classic kitchen uni-taskers you know resources that serve only one purpose. While it’s nice to easily rinse some of our freshest salad recipes, we can assure you that a spinner can be used for much more than leafy greens.

Haven’T Purchased This Nifty Gadget Yet?

Try This Model From Cuisinart.

Simple pasta Picnic-ready pasta salad or just a hearty weekend dinner? Think twice before pouring your pasta a day through a colander. Give your noodles a fast run through the salad spinner to stick to your pasta and not be watered down. (Just remember to save some pasta water!

Berries Berries Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and more need a thorough washing and drying until they are applied to salads, pies, amazing desserts and your cereal bowl! These beauties are easily bruised, so the salad spinner is the perfect tool to pamper them. As with vegetables, cut them as needed and give them a thorough, gentle wash.

Washing And Drying Lettuce And Other Greens

That’s why.

Washing And Drying Fresh Herbs

Homemade French fries are typically a rare indulgence, so taking a few extra measures to make them as deliciously crispy as possible is well worth it. Use the salad spinner to extract the last bit of moisture after soaking the potatoes.

Washing And Drying Berries

Of course, the most common use of a salad spinner is to wash and dry lettuce and other greens. Break lettuce (or greens extracted from the rib like kale, chard, and collards) into bite-sized pieces and put them in your salad spinner. Spinner with cold water. Dump the water and repeat this step a few times, swinging the greens in the bowl, particularly in sandy soil like kale. Fill the spinner again after the water runs clean and add a few spritzes of fruit and vegetable wash or a splash of white vinegar.

Swish the greens around, then rinse the mixture 2-3 times. Spin the greens in the salad spinner, which will dry the greens, but also remove any extra dirt or sand lurking in the leaves. If you find much more dirt in the spinner’s bowl bottom after spinning, it’s best to rinse, swish, and soak the greens 1-2 more times before no dirt appears after spinning.

Washing And Drying Vegetables

Using a spinner to wash fresh herbs like parsley, coriander and basil. Wash them as you would lettuce or greens. Instead of rinsing herbs in your hand and then putting them on a dish towel, in a salad spinner, you can dry herbs easily and efficiently. Even the most delicate herbs here would be protected from bruising, as the herbs just spin together.

Rinsing And Draining Canned Beans Or Vegetables

Wonders work for washing and drying berries. Wash them like you’d wash herbs or greens. If you’re dealing with very delicate raspberries, you might want to let them dry on a kitchen towel, but blueberries, blackberries and strawberries shouldn’t get dried in the spinner.

What Is A Salad Spinner / How Does It Work?

Larger cruciferous vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts from Brussels and bok choy are easy to wash in a salad spinner. Brussels and baby bok choy are perfect to leap into the spinner, but broccoli and cauliflower should be sliced smaller. Big cabbage leaves can also be washed like lettuce.

How To Get Your Greens Super Clean With A Salad Spinner

Using a salad spinner for rinsing and drying canned beans or vegetables. Dump the canned goods into the spinner insert and rinse the food until the water runs clean. Place the spinner in the bowl and dry the food.

Benefits Of A Salad Spinner

This post shares My Top 5 Uses for Salad Spinner, my kitchen workhorse, and my favorite kitchen gadget all-time. Many will recognize my Oxo Salad Spinner from my videos. It’s my steadfast cooking friend, and without it I can’t imagine cooking. I’ve had it for 15 years now. It’s well-worn but still like a winner. As you can see from the pics, it’s the older style and much bulkier. The lighter salad spinner model has fewer plastic and sleeker lines. Functionally, the older style and newer style do exactly the same.

The Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner

A salad spinner is a three-part kitchen item: a bowl, colander, and a spinning mechanism lid. Manually pressing a lever, button, or turning a handle triggers the spinning mechanism that causes the spinning colander. Centrifugal forces detach water from food and propel through the colander holes. The surrounding bowl absorbs the water.

This fast spinning motion rapidly and easily eliminates excess food water. Of course, a salad spinner’s obvious usage is to extract water from leafy vegetables like lettuce, romaine and kale.

The Final Spin

Of all the gadgets and devices you may have in the kitchen, few are as easy and impossible-to-get-wrong as the salad spinner. Before I discovered I was really doing the impossible: I was misusing my salad spinner. Here’s how I and, no offense, but probably you too thought to use a salad spinner: wash lettuces under cold, running water. Placed the greens in a salad spinner. Spin off. Go through life with dry greens. For years, I enjoyed my salad days like this. But there was a problem.

My greens got dry but they didn’t get clean. In this age of farm fresh all, where harvest is literally transported from the ground to our farmer’s markets and “prewashed” is a thing of the past, lettuce has become a little dirtier. And the dirt sticked. That’s where our old friend and his lesser-known superpower come in. A salad spinner may do both washing and drying. Instead of washing the greens under cold water, put them first in the spinner and fill up with water. Rustle all and do absolutely nothing for a few minutes. Watch as the spinner serves as a washing bath, nudging down even the smallest of dirt particles.

After testing Instagram, remove the basket with the greens from the spinner. Dump the spinner water, return the basket to its rightful home, and spin until dry. Go through life with dry, clean greens. Our editors pick all items featured on Epicurious. If you buy through our retail links, we will receive a small affiliate fee. @15@ Nothing worse than wet salad. I needn’t tell you. You like to keep your lettuce and other salad greens as dry as possible, so the dressing can stick and you won’t have a flavorless runny mess. Wet greens won’t last as long. But nothing worse than drying lettuce! Fortunately, there’s a computer to make things easier. It’s been around for years and years, but somehow some folks haven’t caught on.

I was surprised that many blogs and cooking tips compilations dislike the salad spinner. Instead, they say to dry your lettuce with a towel. Dry greens with a towel just doesn’t work well. It’s painful. Plus, the towel better be very clean without any residue from cleaning or softening agents. Drain your salad greens on a paper towel and pat them gently dry and allow them to finish drying in air. Or, use a salad spinner Possibly, those people who dislike salad spinners never used them. Typically they’re confused about how these things operate. Salad spinners aren’t just drying salad greens, they’re even washing them. Although several different brands and models are on the market today, most salad spinners consist of a plastic bowl inserted into a plastic colander.

You use the bowl and colander to soak your greens many times, with or without the top on the machine. Then you spin it using either a handle, up and down plunger, a string, or some other motion. @16@ @17@ Of the hundreds of salad spinners on the market, the 11 versions above are among the best. Although features and prices can differ, all share the essential features of easy operation, quality materials, and effective spin-drying of leafy greens. If you love a nutritious salad or just want to eat more vegetables, pick up one of today’s time-saving gadgets – they’re wonderfully successful and worth investing in!

And if you’re looking for smarter appliances to save time and improve your cooking game, check out our Food Processors Guide – they’re the ultimate convenience. @18@ See our TOS for information. Product images from OXO, Cuisinart, Culina, LeifHeit, Starfrit, Zyliss, Hullr, Ozeri, Progressive. Originally released July 19, 2015. Last updated 25 January 2020. Recently retired as a professional in TV and film, Lorna now enjoys writing on contemporary lifestyle themes. She is especially obsessed with organic tomatoes and herbs and enjoys breaking bread with family and friends.