It’s A Salad Time of Year

It is that time of year when heating up the kitchen ends up heating up the house … at least it does when you live in southern Tennessee!  A salad lunch or dinner often times is just right.  But on Thursday what does the lettuce or spinach look like that you bought on the weekend?  I shared this little-known secret back in 2011 and I beg your forgiveness if this is old news for you.

For my entire adult life I have thrown away yucky lettuce and spinach. I put it in Tupperware – and it turns brown in a couple of days, I put it in plastic bags and it wilts, I buy super-duper green specially made to keep lettuce bags – and it doesn’t last a week! Then, one day I was surfing through some foodie websites and I read this blog post about how storing greens in a mason jar will keep them for a week or two! “Oh ya, I’ll bet” I thought.

Unfortunately, I didn’t save the website name, but I did put some newly purchased spinach and newly purchased green leafy lettuce in jars. I put a plastic screw-top lid on them and set them in the fridge.

One week later I took them out and this is what they looked like —

I immediately made us all a nice salad for dinner (putting the rest of the lettuce and spinach BACK into a jar for another week.) The lettuce tasted fresh, there were NO brown spots and it was crispy. TWO weeks later…

I kid you not, this lettuce and spinach has been in those jars for two weeks and they look almost just like I brought them home from the store. I had one small area of brown in the center of the lettuce and that was it. Now, all of you may have already known this well-kept secret, but I DID NOT! I assure you, I will never, ever, have to throw away yucky lettuce or spinach again. The quart jars fit perfect in my veggie drawer of the refrigerator. I am so thrilled I just had to share!

The Kitchn recently shared Your Summer Guide To Salad Greens and Lettuces.  There are a few recipes  I am going to try out. I’ll keep you posted!

Some of my favorites from the past:
Chicken and Spinach Penne Salad
Kale Garden Salad
And one of my very favorite summer salads —
Spinach and Chicken Asian Salad

Keep Cool,
~Catherine