Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Fresh and Crisp


Lettuce is like conversation; it must be fresh and crisp,
so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it. 
Charles Dudley Warner


This summer we've been eating fresh salad greens like bunnies with healthy appetites. While the bags of pre-washed lettuces are certainly convenient, I've found that they're costly and they have an annoying habit of irritating my tummy in the most unpleasant ways.

Yes, I prefer to buy our lettuce by the head, washing it and preparing it myself. The problem... we don't own a salad spinner for drying our greens. Nobody enjoys a wet salad, so this is my simple way of insuring that we have fresh and crisp, clean and dry lettuce waiting in the refrigerator when it's time to make a summer salad.

I start with a head of fresh lettuce and two large kitchen towels. {See above.}


Wash the leaves thoroughly in cold water and lay half of them in single layer on one of the towels.


Next, place the second towel on top...


And then repeat with another layer of greens.


Now it's time to gently and loosely roll the layers.


Place the entire lettuce wrap in the refrigerator for an hour {or until most of the moisture is absorbed}. When the leaves are mostly dry, remove the lettuce from the towels, tear into bite-sized pieces, and store in a large zip top bag in the refrigerator.

Now you have pre-washed, bagged salad greens. All that's left to do is create your salad.