There are plenty of kitchen gadgets available to make salad preparation exciting, unusual and more efficient. And if you’ve been asking yourself how to prevent yet another bag of unidentifiable brown soggy lettuce remnants from forming in the bottom drawer of your fridge, read on.
A lesser-known kitchen salad must-have is the reusable “greens bag.” Rinse your greens, throw them in the bag and pop it in the fridge; it prolongs the life of fruits and veggies by absorbing moisture and gases which otherwise speed up decomposition. We’ve all wasted more money on forgotten bags of lettuce than the $3.99 the reusable bag costs. They make hard-sided versions too for those who are worried about crushing tender greens.
Another salad necessity is the better-known salad spinner, which washes, spins dry and can rejuvenate starting-to-wilt lettuce. These can now be found in all sorts of colors and styles, from pull-cord (like starting your lawn mower, only way easier) to the gentler pump version.
There are also special knives for greens (plastic serrated blades slice greens easily and don’t brown lettuce edges; Progressive makes one for $3.99) and tomatoes (small serrated blades are perfect for fragile fruits, and they can be found for less than $10).
Another great way to gently handle the perfectly-ripened tomato: soft-skinned vegetable peelers have serrated, double-edged blades for fruits and veggies that might otherwise be mangled by a conventional peeler. Zyliss makes one for $7.99.
And my new personal favorite: R.S.V.P.’s Herb Scissors are genius, featuring five separate three-inch stainless steel blades. This allows you to mince herbs directly into a salad, pan or plate for garnishing. This handy time-saver is ideal for chives, basil, scallions, parsley, dill, etc. ($11.99) — and is dishwasher safe.
Just in time for spring, all of these products come in a range of fun, bright colors to coordinate in your kitchen. Green is hot right now, so think green from your salad bowl to your spinner and have fun!
Leslie Khorsandi is the buyer for LeRoux Kitchen, with stores in Portland, Portsmouth and Martha’s Vineyard. Her parents owned a restaurant for 35 years and she came away with the perfect combination of eating to live (from her mom) and living to eat (that would be dad).