Salad spinner...

[Geila]

Hello all,
I recently saw a cute red (also available in white) KitchenAid salad spinner on sale at Costco for $15 so decided to finally give it a try. And I confess that, either I don't know how to use it properly, or... something. :|(

Can you guys please explain to me how you use it?

When I tried it, it seems like more work than my old style of washing the greens whole, blotting them with cloth towels, chopping, and putting it all in the bowl. It seems that with the unit, I'm supposed to chop first, squeeze the chopped greens in the colander section, then wash, then spin, and repeat? While I like being able to save the used water to recycle in the garden, I know that the greens don't get as clean as when I wash them whole. And there seems to be a big mess when I try to cram all my chopped greens into the spinner. Especially things like chopped cabbage and cilantro. And the unit is huge! It takes up a lot of space in the fridge as a salad bowl, for a relatively small amount of actual salad.

Please let me know if I am using it incorrectly. If so, I would like to give it a good chance to see how it works. And if not, maybe I'm just not a gadget person; after owning a food processor for over 10 years, I find that I've probably used it less than a dozen times. It that's the case, I can return it.

Here is a photo of the one I have:
http://costcocouple.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Kitchen-Aid-Salad-Spinner-Costco-2-640x480.jpghttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61CeScQdXWL._SX425_.jpg



Thanks!

p.s. Wasn't sure if this should go in Food or Purchases. Feel free to move if necessary.

[Float On]

p.s. Wasn't sure if this should go in Food or Purchases. Feel free to move if necessary.

I just don't know why we haven't dedicated an entire category to "Salad Spinners" yet.
:)
.....and I can't answer your question. I don't have one.

[Geila]

I just don't know why we haven't dedicated an entire category to "Salad Spinners" yet.
:)
.....and I can't answer your question. I don't have one.

I know there's some dedicated users out there, so maybe I'm just doing it wrong! I hope to be enlightened :).

[Francie]

I have a smallish one that I seldom use. I used to have a large one -- they were a set -- but it was arm- and shoulder-wrenching to use, so I got rid of it. I can see that if it were electric I might have kept it. We'll see how this summer goes ... I do love greens. I usually just dry them off and whizz them in my food processor a bit into 1/2" or so pieces and put them in everything.

[rosarugosa]

We gave our food processor away, but you would have to pry my salad spinner from my cold, dead hands! :)
Here is how I use it:
On Sunday, I tear up a few hearts of romaine and toss into the basket. (I am under the impression that I'm not supposed to cut lettuce with a knife, or something bad may happen). Then I run the greens and basket under cold water, moving the greens around a bit with my hand. Then I put the basket in the spinner and give them a good spin. Sometimes I sing bits of "The Wheel" or "Money for Gasoline" by the Grateful Dead while I spin, and other times I make vroom vroom noises like I'm driving a race car. This however, is entirely optional. !pow!
I drain the water and I store the greens within the spinner in the fridge. I got this tip from Tiam and it was life-changing! I have ready-to-go lettuce on tap all week. I make my lunch salads for work two days at a time. I find that I'm always game for making a salad if the lettuce is all prepped.

Lyrics from the chorus of Money for Gasoline:
Spin the wheel)
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
(Spin the wheel)
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
(Spin the wheel)
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
Spin the wheel like Ezekiel!

[Mrs. Hermit]

Very appropriate song for the salad spinner to be singing!

[Zoe Girl]

i do that similar to rosa, i rinse, tear apart, spin until nice and dry and eat then or later. do watch for overfilling the spinner, if you have a lot of lettuce or greens then do more batches. i think about halfway full works really well. one great thing is that i am not using towels or kitchen space. i have a very small kitchen so laying out leaves and blotting them seems more time and space consuming than a quick spin. And you don't need to wash out the spinner really, i wash off any leaves and put in the dish drainer is all.

let us know if it works better for you.

[lessisbest]

I have two salad spinners and I use them both, and I use them for more things than just greens. One has an open bottom and a "crank" on the top, so you have to do the spinning in the sink, and the other is contained in a "bowl" and you push the knob on the top to spin it, and it catches the liquid in the bowl. I only fill mine about 1/2 full, spin, shake to redistribute the greens, then spin again (repeat again, if necessary). I like the open-bottom spinner for this task. If your spinner catches the liquid, be sure to dump it each time you spin.

Other uses:
-After making sprouts I rinse them under running water in the spinner basket, and spin them in the salad spinner to remove the seed hulls. If you don't remove the hulls, the sprouts spoil quickly. This is a tip I got from SproutPeople.org.

-When dehydrating food, I use a pre-treatment (an acidic water bath - I use citric acid or Fruit Fresh) before drying the food. The pre-treatment is now recommended to help avoid bacteria growth on dehydrated foods. After the dip into the acidified water, I give the food a spin in the salad spinner to remove a large percentage of the liquid from pre-treatment before placing it on the dehydrator trays.

[CathyA]

I couldn't live without mine! (well.....maybe I could just "exist"). :~)
I wouldn't keep mine in the fridge though.........takes up too much space. Nothing beats getting the water out like centrifugal force!

[jp1]

Geez, I've been using mine wrong all these years. I've never torn the lettuce apart.

Regarding not using a knife on lettuce, that only matters if you aren't eating it all. After cutting it if you put it back in the fridge it can become discolored. At least iceberg will. Not sure about other types.

[lessisbest]

Salad spinners also work great with fresh leaf lettuce. Rinse in the basket, then spin, shake to redistribute, spin again.... I vacuum-seal my leaf and romaine lettuce in a FoodSaver tall canister. It keeps much longer when you vacuum-seal it and store in the refrigerator. If you don't have the right size canister, use a 1/2-gallon canning jar and use the jar sealer with a canning lid, or better yet, use a FoodSaver Universal Lid.

You can also store lettuce in pint or quart jars and use them as ready-to-eat salads, including layering in your favorite ingredients. Helpful hint: If you happen to have a plastic container from single-serving applesauce (or similar size), they fit perfectly over the top of a wide-mouth jar. You can place your dressing (or other ingredients) in the recycled plastic cup, fit it into the opening of the jar, and seal a canning lid and ring over the whole thing.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Using my salad spinner (well I do for most weekday lunches) I can't imagine using real towels instead. Seems like having to wash too many towels! I've used paper towels at times before I had a salad spinner but of course I just feel bad about wasting them and the salad spinner works better. This salad spinner doesn't seem to work quite as well as the one I melted though.

Also I just noticed lettuce is very very dirty. I was just washing it through a colander before (a separate colander not part of the salad spinner), turning them around a few times, letting the water flow over them. Well I did that today but also turned them around in a bowl of water. Had to do 3 water changes and still a little silt (but good enough, no point getting obsessive compulsive about it). I suppose they were not that clean before. Not that it really bugs me that much, dirt ho hum, but probably going to do the bowl of water rinsing now. And the salad spinner then dries them out perfectly. It's leaf lettuce today, green and dark purple types (I vary the lettuces every week, but iceberg is my least favorite. Romaine keeps the longest).

[Radicchio]

My problem with the salad spinner is that my lettuce never seems crisp afterward. Anyone have a solution?

[Gregg]

My problem with the salad spinner is that my lettuce never seems crisp afterward. Anyone have a solution?

Another from the "cold, dead hands" contingent here. We fill the bowl with very cold water and a little ice, then let the greens soak for a few minutes to soften up any dirt. Then swish it all around and pull the greens out, putting them in the basket part of the spinner. Spin dry and put them in baggies with paper towels. Crisp and fresh all week. Same story with herbs, btw.

[kib]

Cutting lettuce with knife = crushing some of the delicate, crunchy, water-filled cells. Reality = my local store makes chopped salad using a pastry cutter, just mashes the heck out of the greens, and they're still delicious and firm. Might get a little too limp if you don't use right away, though, so maybe tearing v. cutting is a way to keep crisper longer.

and yes, stand back from my salad spinner.

[Float On]

I have a "lettuce knife". It's large serrated and green. It may be the only tool in the drawer that has only 1 use. Cutting lettuce. No browning of edges since it's plastic.

[Geila]

Ok, so I have been making salad all week, using the very helpful advice received from you guys, to give the magic salad spinner a fair chance. It definitely makes salad more dry, for sure. In fact, I find that I'm using quite a bit more dressing than normal. I can see that if I were using the softer leaf lettuces or field greens this would be a big plus. Also see how it would be good for spinach or kale salads. If I recall, home grown lettuces are softer than store bought, so that would be a plus there too.

Since I like a very crunchy salad, I'm probably not getting as much benefit out of it. Tonight my salad was romaine lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, apple, and walnuts and I think I actually prefer my salad a bit more "moist" :|( and using less dressing (not soggy or watery, mind you, just pleasantly moist and crunchy). :)

And I miss rolling my big romaine lettuce leaves in a kitchen towel and then putting the towel out to dry. I felt very homey doing it - like I was out on the farm! cow-hi

But I'm really glad that I gave a try. I sure ate a lot of salad doing the testing, and that's always a good thing.

[Geila]

Salad spinners also work great with fresh leaf lettuce. Rinse in the basket, then spin, shake to redistribute, spin again.... I vacuum-seal my leaf and romaine lettuce in a FoodSaver tall canister. It keeps much longer when you vacuum-seal it and store in the refrigerator. If you don't have the right size canister, use a 1/2-gallon canning jar and use the jar sealer with a canning lid, or better yet, use a FoodSaver Universal Lid.

You can also store lettuce in pint or quart jars and use them as ready-to-eat salads, including layering in your favorite ingredients. Helpful hint: If you happen to have a plastic container from single-serving applesauce (or similar size), they fit perfectly over the top of a wide-mouth jar. You can place your dressing (or other ingredients) in the recycled plastic cup, fit it into the opening of the jar, and seal a canning lid and ring over the whole thing.

Hi lessisbest - I want thank you for your advice and suggestions. They really helped a lot. And for this great idea! I love it. I can especially see this making an excellent Caesar salad (minus the croutons, which I don't care for anyway). Yummmmm..... I might have to make some this weekend. :thankyou:

[lessisbest]

A "fix" for limp lettuce.... Squeeze juice from half a lemon into a large bowl of cold water. Add lettuce. Refrigerate for 1 hour to crisp greens. Give it a spin in the salad spinner just before using it.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I wasn't kidding about washing that lettuce off. I used to just rinse it in a colander, but since I've done the spinning it around in several changes of water I've found tiny bugs many times but today found a worm - alive and writhing, survived several days in my fridge. Well I rinsed the lettuce off several times since and I guess I'll eat it, I don't plan not to really. I guess before I was just eating the bugs (protein!). I suppose it's a little wasteful of water to swish it around in a bowl of clean water several times - oh well call the governor on me :~)

[Packy]

Oh, this topic gets me so riled up--I want NOTHING to do with it! I'm COMPLETELY ignoring it! Do you hear me?

[ApatheticNoMore]

And today's lettuce had a ladybug (it had already been rinsed in the colander and one rinse in a bowl of water already).

You think eventually I'd stop buying organic lettuce ... >8) (little tiny bugs sure, but also live worms, and live ladybugs ... so far)

Ok I took it outside, those bugs make themselves cute just so we won't destroy them, you know it.

[Chicken lady]

ANM, my dad always teases me that you can eat organic or you can eat vegetarian, but you can't eat vegetarian organic because you're gonna eat a bug.

[lessisbest]

I just picked a LOT of leaf lettuce and carefully washed it and ran it around in the salad spinner and took a huge bag full to the elderly neighbors across the street, who were thrilled with the windfall. I did mention any "critters" were a bonus, although I tried to make sure there weren't any. Mr. Neighbor said oil and vinegar dressing would kill them.....:~)

If you want to freak out with bugs, as well as their pieces/parts, check the contents of wheat in a combine hopper during harvest. We've had to winnow a LOT of free grain over the years and just consider the high possibility of tiny bits that just couldn't be winnowed out of the grain as a good source of B12, no matter how careful you are.

[iris lilies]

I forgot to report here when I got a new salad spinner last week. It's one of those fancy schmancy Oxo items with a brake.

it does a nice job.

i was thinking that in a small kitchen, one could use the basket as a strainer, you would not need another strainer.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I forgot to report here when I got a new salad spinner last week. It's one of those fancy schmancy Oxo items with a brake.

stainless steel, did you get stainless steel? That's what I have because stainless steel is of course worth spending way more on cause it's stainless steel (mostly I figured the stainless steel bowl would be easier to clean and well at least that part of it won't melt ... ) But I think the old one I got from a garage sale worked better until it melted, that was one fine salad spinner.

[iris lilies]

stainless steel, did you get stainless steel? That's what I have because stainless steel is of course worth spending way more on cause it's stainless steel (mostly I figured the stainless steel bowl would be easier to clean and well at least that part of it won't melt ... ) But I think the old one I got from a garage sale worked better until it melted, that was one fine salad spinner.

alas, it is only plastic, not stainless steel. :)

[rosarugosa]

A stainless steel salad spinner! Some folks get exited over fancy cars and such, but we SLF folks know what's really cool!:cool:

[Zoe Girl]

Oh, this topic gets me so riled up--I want NOTHING to do with it! I'm COMPLETELY ignoring it! Do you hear me?

do you have your fingers in your ears saying nyah nyah

[Tiam]

We gave our food processor away, but you would have to pry my salad spinner from my cold, dead hands! :)
Here is how I use it:
On Sunday, I tear up a few hearts of romaine and toss into the basket. (I am under the impression that I'm not supposed to cut lettuce with a knife, or something bad may happen). Then I run the greens and basket under cold water, moving the greens around a bit with my hand. Then I put the basket in the spinner and give them a good spin. Sometimes I sing bits of "The Wheel" or "Money for Gasoline" by the Grateful Dead while I spin, and other times I make vroom vroom noises like I'm driving a race car. This however, is entirely optional. !pow!
I drain the water and I store the greens within the spinner in the fridge. I got this tip from Tiam and it was life-changing! I have ready-to-go lettuce on tap all week. I make my lunch salads for work two days at a time. I find that I'm always game for making a salad if the lettuce is all prepped.

Lyrics from the chorus of Money for Gasoline:
Spin the wheel)
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
(Spin the wheel)
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
(Spin the wheel)
Spin the wheel, spin the wheel
Spin the wheel like Ezekiel!


LOL....Well! Glad that was useful. I in turn will have to come up with an appropriate tune....I like Neil Young....perhaps: Long may you run?

[Tiam]

I have a "lettuce knife". It's large serrated and green. It may be the only tool in the drawer that has only 1 use. Cutting lettuce. No browning of edges since it's plastic.


Yeah? Can you share the other use of your can opener? I need another job for that sucker!;)

[Chicken lady]

I bet Packy has one.