Preparing salad leaves

 

If you grow you own salad or buy it at a farmer’s market, it will likely be grown organically and it will have some insects, or worse – small slugs, hiding in between the leaves, not to mention the dirt.

The best way to prepare your salad leaves is to soak them in cold water for around 30 minutes as soon as you can. This will minimise the damage that the slugs can do before the salad gets used as well as reduce the risk of you munching some of those slimy little creatures. As the leaves are soaking in water, you will see all the wildflife leaving it. Push down with your hand a few times, to make sure the leaves are plunged.

Drain in a strainer, pushing out as much water as possible. It is important that you dry salad well, as the dressing won’t adhere to wet salad leaves and will be diluted. It won’t taste as good, and will make salad wilt quicker.

If you’ve got a salad spinner, use it to dry the salad. Otherwise, here is a quick lifehack to dry salad without a spinner: Lay it on a tea towl, tie it together so that the salad leaves are safely enclosed in the tea towel. Spin it as shown in the video. You will see water leaving the salad as it will splash around.

When you finish the spinning, keep it in a fridge in a damp tea towel to prevent wilting. No need to wash it again. Enjoy your salad!

Notes:

• Nut milk or cheese bags are good for salad spinning too.
• If salad does start to wilt a bit, revitalise it by soaking in water again.