RSS FeedCathe's Kitchen: Salad Spinners
I gave a talk Saturday about ways to incorporate more local foods and greens into your diet. One of the recipes I demo'd was a salad with my 30-second salad dressing. I told participants that a salad spinner is a great idea. When your lettuce is dry, the salad dressing adheres better so you need less of it. (Another tip for using less dressing is to toss your salad in a bowl with the dressing. When you put salad on your plate and add teh dressing there, you'll use much more.) I also love that my spinner came with a cover. When I get my head of lettuce home from the farmers' market, I tear off the leaves, soak and wash the whole head and spin in the spinner. Then I replace the spinner part with a cover and I have clean, ready-to-use lettuce all week. It's much cheaper and much healthier than the bagged lettuce sold in stores which has been found to contain high levels of bacteria.
I'm not sure if this qualifies as a salad spinner tip or an anti-salad spinner tip -- I picked up, from the mother of a dear college friend, the habit of using a pillowcase, putting the washed greens in it, and taking it outside and spinning it around over your head. :D In fact, I have gorgeous purple/dyed pillowcase (made with fabric my aunt brought back from Peace Corps in Liberia) that is saved for that very function (it's too short for most pillows anyway). Cathe Olson is the author of several natural foods cookbooks. She has had articles published in national magazines such as Mothering, Natural Awakenings, Vegetarian Voice, and VegFamily Magazines. Cathe is also the Library Media Technician in charge of an elementary school library. She directed the Central Coast Writers’ Conference for four years and has served on the boards of the Central Coast Book and Author Festival, Friends of the Nipomo Library, and SLO Nightwriters. She is currently working on a children's novel and a vegan family cookbook.
