Apart from the salad spinner, the winner is…
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cottage tales, Discoveries | 10 comments
Photo: Salad spinner
Recently we bought a dinky little salad spinner from TKMaxx (Swiss – Zyliss, reduced from £20.00 to £7.99). A perfectly engineered addition to the kitchen. I have a horror of wet salad leaves but have always avoided those cumbersome salad spinners that take up loads of space and aren’t very efficient.
I’ve been through the gamut of most alternatives. Whirling like a dervish with the salad leaves in a clean tea towel. Air drying the salad leaves on the drainer beside the sink. Padding the leaves with kitchen roll. The tea towel option worked the best. But it was never quite enough.
When I spotted the mini Zyliss spinners, my heart jumped. I sped home to consult D.
“I’ve found a compact salad spinner that is operated with a ripcord and has a button marked Stop. Can I invest?”
D’s eyes lit up with the thought of dry salad leaves.
“Of course.”
I wanted to put all the names of the people who left comments on last night’s post in the salad spinner and pull the cord hoping that the natural winner would float to the top of the pile.
Danny was indignant.
“Let’s independently choose the five best comments that make us feel good. And then compare notes.”
He raced upstairs to the Rat Room. Ten minutes later he reappeared with his list.
Two names – Michelle NZ and Ruthdigs appeared joint top of the aggregate points total. As Ruthdigs already owns the book, my copy will be slowly winging its way to New Zealand. We’ll find a worthy consolation prize for Ruthdigs.
Thank you everyone for leaving comments. Much appreciated as always.
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Every kitchen in France seems to have one of these. I have never invested in one because of the space it takes up in the cupboard. I am determined to get one this year because we had so much home grown cut and come again lettuce last year which all had to be dried off. What a bore!I think a trip to TK Maxx is called for! Thanks for reminding me.
I have never heard of such things – indeed one does learn something new every day. I look forward to a review, although for now I think the kitchen roll will have to remain my solution of choice, at least until a bigger kitchen is forthcoming!
I have the distinct feeling that D’s eyes lighting up were not for dry salad leaves, I suspect as with all men cos of the very nature of its gizmo pull rip cord that swung the done deal.
Maybe daydreams of parachute commando or speed boat play boy will accompany his salad making from now on…
men…bless em…LOL
I have a mini salad spinner which is reasonably efficient and does the job without taking up too much room in my cupboard but I came across a new one in Costco last week which has a trigger system you pump 3 or 4 times and then it spins like crazy. I’m seriously lusting after it! But I don’t need it so I guess I’ll just play with the display one whenever I go to Costco. I like nice dry lettuce as I sometimes use a large leaf to wrap sandwich fillings instead of having bread.
My late mother used to spin salad in her spin-drier – it worked very well.
We have two spinners, one large, one small and both very effective.
Thank you Fiona, I’m glad that my comment could in some way repay the pleasure I get from reading your blog everyday. I love hearing about the min pins, the chickens and the curious and sometimes naughty pets you meet through your work. I especially love all the recipes and hearing the processes that went into them. Long may you continue! Have a lovely day, you’ve just brightened mine. 😀
Fiona, what a lovely surprise. I hope this will compell me to do somthing with my small wilderness.
Salad spinners are really great. I use mine often for fresh herbs. And a useful tip from my Mother is to spin cooked spinach to remove excess water when making quiches and fritters etc……
Enjoy your springtime. Here it is green all year round so the seasonal changes don’t stand out so much. I never really appreciated Spring until I spent the Winter of 87/88 in London.
And thanks for sharing your tomatoes and mushrooms om toast brunch idea. It is so light yet ttoally filling (and I don’t have to fight off the cat for it).
Have a happy Tuesday, Michelle and Zebbycat
Salad spinners are great! I absolutely hate wet lettuce and watery dressing, to the extent that it puts me off making salad. I’ve done the whirling it round your head/tea-towel/paper towels, with similar results.
We now have a similar spinner to yours, and it works really well — it’s amazing how much water comes off. The outer container does double duty as a salad bowl, so after you’ve whizzed the lettuce you can dry the bowl and tip the salad into it.
I am hoping for a review asap on this Fiona, i keep umming & arring over this gadget… I have heard some people say they end up with lettuce pesto…
Because this make is Swiss, it works like a dream with everything moving perfectly. You can get a bigger size too. I’ve only tried it with lettuce so far. Like Veronica wet salad leaves put me off eating salad and this gadget has meant that we now eat far more salad.