You Can Keep Your Salad Fresh For Longer With These Simple Tips

Including fresh fruits and veggies as salads in your diet can ensure a healthy diet. Fresh salads taste nice and crispy. However if left for sometime, they turn soggy. And who likes to eat soggy salads? There is nothing worse than getting ready to enjoy a lovely, crisp salad only to find that your salad leaves are now wilted, or even worse, slimy. Fortunately, there are several tips and ways that can help you keep your salad fresh for longer. Start doing these simple tricks today and see how simple it is to make your salad stay fresh.

1. Preserve Green Leafy Salads

• Chop and wash the veggies. Remove the roots of the leaf lettuce by chopping them off and remove the core of the iceberg lettuce. Then, fill a bowl halfway with cool water and soak the leaves for 10 minutes. If the water looks to be dirty, throw the water and refill the bowl until the water is clean. After rinsing the leaves, place them on a clean paper towel to dry.
• Put the leaves in the spinner's strainer basket and close the lid tightly. To remove any surplus water, spin the spinner for 15-20 seconds.
• Spread the damp leaves on a towel. Roll up the towel with leaves inside, then pat it gently. Unroll to remove the dry leaves.
• Wash and chop the rest of the ingredients. Tomatoes and cucumbers, for example, can be rinsed under running water and dried with clean paper towels. To remove any dirt caked into the outer crevices of the skin, some vegetables, such as carrots, may need to be cleaned with a vegetable brush or peeled with a vegetable peeler.
• Heavy veggies, like carrots and cucumbers, should be at the bottom of the dish, and lettuce and other leafy greens should go on top. Toss lightly, but don't toss the salad with the dressing, as this will make the leaves limp.
• Store any dressing in a separate container in the refrigerator. Adding it too soon will make the leaves limp and soggy.
• Any dressing should be kept in a separate container in the fridge. If you add it too soon, the leaves may become soggy and limp.
• If your salad contains veggies with a high water content, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, take extra precautions to avoid your leaves becoming soggy too soon. Place part of the salad in the bowl and cover it with a paper towel. On top of it, spread out more salad and cover with another piece of paper towel. You can do this for two to four layers, but make sure a paper towel is on top of each one.
• Use a lid, plastic wrap, or both to seal the container. Cover the dish with a tight layer of plastic cling wrap to prevent air from getting in and damaging the leaves. If the bowl comes with a lid, place that on top of the plastic wrap for more protection.
• Refrigerate the salad and keep it fresh for a week. Every few days, check on the salad and gently stir the leaves around. If the paper towel becomes damp, replace it.

2. Keep Fruit Salad Fresh

• Wash and cut your fruits. All of the fruit, except the bananas, should be rinsed and chopped into bite-size pieces. In a bowl, combine these sliced, rinsed, and dried fruit.
• If you are using oxidizing fruit, chop the fruit and coat it with citrus juice. Cut up a lemon, pineapple or orange and squeeze their juice into a small and separate bowl. Mix one tablespoon of the citrus juice in one cup of water, then pour it over your fruit. Now, toss.
• If you don't have citrus juice, keep the fruit in cold water. Fill a plastic bowl with cold water to the brim with the fruit, preferably one with a lid, so that it is thoroughly submerged.
• Cover the bowl with an airtight lid. Because fruit has a higher water content than leafy greens, it spoils faster, so keep your fruit salad in a dish with a lid if possible.
• Even if your bowl doesn't include oxidising fruit, you should keep your fruit salad refrigerated to keep the fruit fresh. Don't wait for more than five days before eating it, otherwise the fruit will lose a lot of its freshness by then.
• Remove the bowl from the refrigerator and pour the fruit into a strainer over the sink if you stored it in water, or scoop it out with a slotted spoon.
• Refrigerate the dressing separately in a separate container. Just before serving, toss it into the salad.

Enjoy your salads fresh!

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