It’s been fun to have so many people join my in the 10 day produce and protein challenge! We just got back yesterday from our camping trip and I am ready to jump back into eating lots of vegetables (If my strained arms let me, that is! Trying to wakeboard after not a lot of physical activity in 6 years results in strained arm muscles. Owww).
Several of you have been asking about salad spinners and which ones I’ve used. I thought I would share which brands I’ve used and liked and also a few other finds that were very helpful for me as I was making all of those salads for my book. All of these items are helpful and very nice to have, but not absolutely necessary for making delicious salads in your home.
Let’s start with the salad spinners. I’ve personally owned two. As I was looking for the links on Amazon to the two I owned, I noticed that overall salad spinners don’t get high reviews, which kind of surprised me. But that may be because the salad spinners I’ve owned got decent reviews. The first I owned was the OXO Large Salad Spinner
What I recommend in salad spinners: Large capacity (those small ones just aren’t big enough for us), a salad spinner that doesn’t take much energy to spin (such as the ones listed above), and a salad spinner without draining holes on the bottom so that you can wash the lettuce right in the salad spinner.
However, a possible alternative is salad bags. Ever heard of them? I stumbled upon them when I was looking for a way to replace the plastic bags I was storing my lettuce in as I tried to cut down on plastic consumption in my house. They are made out of microfiber material. The neat thing is this. They do away with the need for salad spinners. You wash the lettuce and put it in the bag without drying it. In fact, part of my problem in using the salad bag is that I am so used to drying my salad that I always dry it somewhat before putting it in the salad bag. For it to work well, your lettuce actually needs to be damp. I haven’t experimented a lot with the salad bags yet because as I mentioned in my video, we were eating so many salads that I just used my salad spinner to prepare my lettuce right before eating. But it should work to dry the lettuce as well as store it (without plastic in either the bags or the salad spinner). Three options (I own the first two): HIC Harold Import Salad Sac
Finally, I used the Pure Komachi 2 Hollow-Ground Santoku Knife for all of my slicing and dicing these last 6 months or so. I had a mid priced santoku knife that I loved and it got left behind on one vacation and I never got it back. It was really sad, especially as we couldn’t afford to replace it. I made do for a while without it, but I got a little desperate for a santoku knife as I love how thinly and easily it cuts vegetables. We still couldn’t afford to replace it, but I stumbled upon the Pure Komachi knives really on accident and I noticed that they were both really inexpensive and got really high reviews on Amazon. I will be talking more about these knifes this next week, so stay tuned (giveaway anyone?). But I thought I would mentioned them here as well. (By the way, they also have a whole Knife Set
Salad servers are also really handy to have. I personally like wooden salad servers that aren’t too clunky (they are more gentle on salads than metal salad servers). I couldn’t find a link to the exact ones I love so much, but these French Olive-Wood Handcrafted Salad-Server Set
Those are some of the kitchen tools that I’ve used in my kitchen. Anyone else have experience and thoughts on salad spinners, knives, salad servers, salad bowls, or other kitchen equipment?
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An alternative to a salad spinner is a kitchen towel. Take a clean, dry towel, place the washed salad in the middle, pull up the corners, and swing around and around until the drops stop flying. I usually do this outside, and I prefer a nice, big flour sack towel. Sorry if this isn’t a very good explanation. 🙂
I definitely agree on the “large” part– my mom has a smaller one than I do (which is kind of funny, since she has seven people to feed as opposed to my two!) and it drives me nuts. It’s a great spinner, probably nicer than my OXO, but the small size is a major drawback. Even though there are only two of us I like to wash an entire head of Romaine at once.
Salad spinners are also great for storing washed lettuce. I wash and spin my mesclun mix in my large oxo then leave what we don’t use in there and pop it into the fridge. I’ve even gone away for several days having left lettuce and spinach leaves in the spinner and they were just perfect when we got home. Crisp and lovely, no slime.
I have another spinner with an open bottom that I use for romaine when the oxo has soft lettuces in it.
Salad spinners are also great for doing laundry. Provides good agitation and spins out the water well. I use for washing small clothes and some fine gague wool sweaters.
Personally, I find that a pillowcase or dishtowel and the whirl outside approach on the porch approach works quite well. Wrap in another dishtowl and then stick in the fridge. A salad spinner is a pretty large piece of equipment to store in a small kitchen.
My favorite “salad” tool is a mortar and pestle. It’s one of the keys to fantastic herb-based salad dressings.
Have you blogged about that? I’ve love to know more.
I too am interested in the mortar and pestle method. I’ve always been lazy and used a blender. 🙂
I use this one right now: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VWF3E0
I also have the Zyliss pull string one (not the lever one that Kimi has).
In general I actually like the pull string ones better than the ones with the quick stop button that seem to be more common and popular.
I tried an OXO spinner and returned it – in my experience the MIU one I use now and also the Zyllis, get leaves drier than the OXO. I think they spin faster. But I would say of the Zyliss pull string one or the MIU, it’s a toss up, but right now I prefer the MIU. It isn’t as “premium” of a brand and was packaged very “no nonsense” and simply – when I first got it I had my doubts about it being “cheap,” but it works well. Wish it was a tad bigger. I can fit 3 hearts of romaine in it though, chopped as shown in the video Kimi posted, so it is not “small.”
I received a Tupperware salad spinner as a gift many years ago. While I normally don’t like such big kitchen gadgets and I groaned when I got the spinner I have learned to really appreciate it. This Tupperware spinner is really nice in that it comes completely apart if I wish to wash all moving parts. Also, the basket lifts out if I choose to use the outer compartment to store my greens (it comes with a separate lid for this purpose). There are no breakable parts and it all nests very cleverly for a bit easier storage. Bottom line, I love that it is 100% disassembleable (is that a word) for easy cleaning, although it doesn’t need it often. I never see reviews on salad spinners that include this one so thought I’d get my two cents worth in!
Hi, Kim. I’m a new commenter, but I’ve been reading your blog for awhile now. Love your site!! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience.
I absolutely love salad spinners. I feel that my greens are always so clean (more so than using a kitchen towel, in my opinion. And produce washes or soaps are easily added and washed out.
Plus, for some reason it makes making a salad a lot more fun, don’t you think? 🙂
I also have a tupperware salad spinner & I really like .I prefer to wash all my veggies in a fruit & veg. wash
{,made by Sunrider } first & then use the spinner for my lettuce & swiss chard & I find that will keep longer & fresher .
When you mentioned your salad spinner being a big improvement over your mom’s old one I thought to myself “I bet it’s the same crappy one I borrowed from my mom…” and it is!
I replaced it with a $3 salad spinner I found at Ikea; granted it’s about half the size but the improved performance (it was always slipping) and the fact that there aren’t holes in the bottom (didn’t realize this the first time I used it, what a mess!) makes it worth it for me.
I think I’ll check out those bags though.
A few years ago I bought a set of two (one 7″ and one 5″) Henckel’s santoku knives (just the plain J.A. Henckels, not the Zwilling) from Amazon for $20. They are wonderfully sharp and are still going strong!
I’m in need of a new knife and was really interested in the one that you highlighted here. Do you happen to know anything about the nonstick coating on it though? That’s the only thing that gives me pause about it. Love your blog! Thanks for all the work you put into it. 🙂
Need enlightenment:
I’ve always torn the lettuce leaves for salad as once was told cutting them destroys nutrients…perhaps these Komachi knives are a positive alternative???
Thx.