Human Salad Spinner

Have you ever been at the beach with a head of freshly washed lettuce, without the aid of a salad spinner to dry it? How do you get your lettuce dry? Without a salad spinner, are techniques available to those who are eating outdoors, in dire need of a fresh, crisp salad? Why yes, there is! Read on for the modern technological solution.

So the other day we provided a staff lunch: "Build your own Sandwich day". One of the sandwich fix-ins was lettuce. At work, we do not have a salad spinner (Egads!) so you can imagine our dilemma. Buy pre-shredded lettuce for double the price, or buy a head to wash, dry and serve? We opted for pre-shredded knowing the branch does not own a salad spinner, however the local store we were shopping at did not have pre-shredded lettuce available... so we bought a head of green leaf lettuce despite all other hesitations. I mean, honestly, who wants to have a sandwich without lettuce?

According to the Barefoot Contessa, there are solutions if you are in this potentially compromising situation. Some of you may know Leslie, my boss at work, and she loves to pass along the tips and recipes she learns from watching cooking shows such as the Barefoot Contessa, Rachel Ray (Yum-O), the Naked Chef... (errr, sorry Leslie, I shouldn't have mentioned that... but at least we know they do not recommend deep frying...hahaha)

So there Leslie is, normally so professional, with a dripping wet head of lettuce. Next thing I know she says, "Here's what the Barefoot Contessa recommends if you're on the beach without a salad spinner" and she gets in this stance:


She starts windmilling her arm around to manually dry the lettuce. The idea is the tea towel holds the lettuce, while the water is free to fly out of the package working with centrifugal force. It worked. But keep in mind we are indoors, in our small staff lunchroom so there was water flying EVERYWHERE!

When Leslie was done her salad spinning exploits, everything was dripping wet including the floor, walls and ceiling. Some wetness even made it's way into the staff bathrooms. On the bright side, we confirmed that, yes, the staff room is in fact indoors.

I guess this is why the Barefoot Contessa recommends this technique for outdoors. It worked though... the lettuce was dry and crisp and enjoyed in sandwiches by all. We call it the Human Salad Spinner.