Washing Salad, Step by Step Instructions and Cooking School

Author:
Thomas Sixt is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

Washing Salad: Handling leaf salads is relatively uncomplicated in itself. Those who prepare their salad well will always have some vitamins ready to hand in the fridge. Leaf salads are plucked bite-sized and washed thoroughly before preparation and marinating. Dry spinning is very important, as the salad marinade or dressing only sticks to the dry salad. Washed and spun dry salad can be kept in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. This step-by-step guide is dedicated to the optimal preparation of leaf salads.

1. Clean and Wash the Lettuce properly, the Manual

Leaf salads Detach leaf by leaf from head, pluck bite-sized, quickly wash in plenty of cold water. This preserves the water-soluble vitamins and removes the dirt at the same time. After washing, the lettuce must be dried and centrifuged. Special treatment is required for particularly fine lettuce such as lamb’s lettuce. There is also the article Washing lamb’s lettuce.

2. Step by Step Instructions Cleaning and Washing Lettuce

Leaf salads should always be washed briefly and quickly to remove dirt and still retain the water-soluble vitamins in the salad.

3. Cut or Puck Lettuce?

The lettuce leaves should be plucked if the lettuce is not prepared immediately. Plucked lettuce does not brown as quickly as cut lettuce at the breaking points. So if you prepare lettuce and keep it in the fridge, plucking lettuce is the first choice.

4. Wash Lettuce with Salt?

Washing lettuces in salt is not necessary, if lettuces are very dirty they should be washed several times in fresh water.

5. Lettuce Wash warm Water?

Warm water to wash salad is the exception. Very bitter lettuce varieties such as chicory and endive can be washed hot for a short time to wash out the bitter substances. The disadvantage is that water-soluble vitamins dissolve very quickly in warm water and the salad is washed empty. The advantage is that bitter lettuce varieties lose their bitter taste when washed and leave in warm water (approx. 5 minutes). Therefore, washing in warm water, taken over from traditional cooking, is very often practiced. It is important to place the salad in cold water after the warm water so that it regains its crispness.

6. The Rule is: Lettuce is washed in cold Water!

Pluck lettuce and wash it quite quickly in cold water, change the water several times if it is very dirty. The process should be completed in a maximum of 10 minutes.

7. Wilted salad is refreshed with ice cubes

If the lettuce has withered and lost strength, adding ice cubes will help. After approx. 5 minutes in ice water, the salad is nicely fresh again and can be processed further.

8. How to dry washed Salad

The washed salad is put into the salad spinner, the water can drain off. The dry leaf salad can absorb the salad dressing.

Salad in the salad spinner to dryNow spin the lettuce dry with the salad spinner.

Leaf salad must always be drained or spun, as only the dry salad will adhere to the salad dressing!

9. Store Leaf Salads optimally

Line a lockable box with kitchen paper.

10. Store washed and drained Salad Lettuce for 2-3 Days

Put the salad in the prepared box and let it lie loosely.

11. So Lettuces stay Fresh and Crunchy longer

Cover the washed and dried salad with moistened kitchen paper. The salad can be kept for 3 days and can be marinated directly out of the box.

12. Keep Leaf Salad closed

Please do not forget to close the lid, the salad cannot absorb any odours and remains fresh!

13. Salad properly Wash in Pregnancy

The washing of leaf salads shown in the instructions is completely sufficient, even during pregnancy.

14. Do I have to wash Packaged prepared Leaf Salad?

The opinions differ here, in any case a repeated washing of prepared bag salads can not harm. The lettuce is often filled with gas in order to achieve a shelf life. Under certain circumstances, the packaged lettuces were washed in chlorinated water beforehand to reduce the bacterial count. So it is advisable to wash these salads again quickly.