Keep Salad Fresh

No salad will stay fresh indefinitely, but you can preserve a salad for as long as possible by storing it in a way that minimizes moisture and air exposure.

Steps

Leafy Green Salads

1. Wash and dry the ingredients. Rinse the lettuce and other vegetables in cool water and dry them off. The ingredients of your salad must be completely dry before you put the salad together.
   • Most vegetables, like tomatoes and cucumbers can be rinsed under running water and dried with clean paper towels. Some, like carrots, may need to be scrubbed with a vegetable brush or peeled with a vegetable peeler to remove any dirt caked into the outer crevices of the skin.
   • The hardest vegetables to work with in this case will be your lettuce and other leafy greens. To thoroughly clean and dry leafy greens, you should separate the leaves and let them sit in a sink or bowl of cool water for five to ten minutes. After that, you should rinse the leaves gently under running water and place them into a salad spinner. Spin the leaves thoroughly to remove all traces of moisture.
   • It is absolutely crucial that you send the lettuce through a salad spinner and that you dry off all the other vegetables. When trying to keep the lettuce portion of the salad fresh, you need the container it sits in to be as dry as possible. If moisture builds up inside the container, it will cling to the lettuce leaves and cause them to become soggy.
2. Assemble the salad. You can mix the lettuce and other ingredients as desired before you store the salad. Combine the ingredients in a single large bowl or in individual serving bowls.
   • Note that there are some ingredients that you should only add when you are ready to serve the salad. Hard boiled eggs can spoil fast and should not be stored with the rest of the salad. Most fruits have too much water content and can cause the lettuce to wilt too quickly even if you take precautions against moisture.
3. Place a paper towel in the bowl. Take a clean, dry paper towel and fold it so that it can rest at the top of the salad bowl. If you have a large bowl of salad, you might need to use two or three paper towels.
   • The paper towels are another crucial element because they help keep moisture off the lettuce. Vegetables naturally contain a little water, so even if you dry everything off thoroughly before you place it into the bowl, some moisture will inevitably build up. By placing paper towels on top of the salad, you can protect the lettuce from getting soggy. The water will be absorbed by the paper towels instead of sitting on the lettuce leaves.
   • If your salad contains a lot of vegetables with a high water content, like tomatoes and cucumbers, you might want to consider adding more protection by layering paper towels in between layers of salad. Lay a little of your salad on the bottom of the bowl and place a paper towel over it. Spread out more salad on top of that and lay another sheet of paper towel over that. You can repeat this for two to four sets of alternating layers, but make sure that a paper towel rests on top.
4. Seal the container. If the container has a lid, place the lid on top. Otherwise, tightly cover the container with plastic wrap.
   • If you want to ensure freshness, cover the bowl with a tight sheet of plastic wrap and place a tight lid on top of that.
   • Like moisture, air is another element that can quickly cause your lettuce to wilt. It can also cause the other vegetables to become less fresh and to spoil faster, so keeping air out of your container is an essential step.
5. Store the dressing separately. Any dressing you plan to use for the salad should be stored in a separate airtight container. Do not combine the dressing and the salad before you store the salad.
   • If you add the dressing beforehand, you will introduce too much moisture to the salad and pretty much guarantee that the lettuce will become soggy and wilted.
6. Refrigerate the salad. Place the container of salad and the container of dressing in the refrigerator. Keep the salad there until you are ready to serve it.
   • Every time you open the container, you should stir the salad some and replace the paper towel with a fresh one.
   • You should also replace the paper towel if it begins to look soggy.
   • When stored in this manner, salad can stay fresh and crisp for a week or more.

Fruit Salads

1. Prepare your fruits. Wash, dry, and cut the fruit for your salad. Many types of fruit are difficult to keep fresh once cut, but there are methods you can use to help prolong freshness. Consider whether you want to prepare these fruits in advance using these techniques or if you want to add these fruits to the salad just before serving it.
2. Coat cut fruits in an antioxidant fruit juice. If you are using fruits in your salad that are likely to brown when exposed to air, you should protect them by tossing the cut pieces in a little lemon juice.
   • Apples, pears, and bananas oxidize when the flesh of the fruit is exposed to air. This oxidation process is what causes these fruits to quickly turn brown after you cut them.
   • While lemon juice is the most common juice used to protect sensitive fruits from oxidation, most citrus juices would work. That includes lime juice, pineapple juice, and orange juice.
3. Submerge the fruit in cold water. Another way to preserve the freshness of cut fruit for a longer period of time is to place the fruit pieces into a plastic container and cover them with fresh, cold water. Cover the container with a lid.
   • The water needs to be as cold as you can get it to be without adding ice.
   • You also need to fill the container to the brim with water. The pieces of fruit should be completely submerged and should not be able to come into contact with any air.
   • You can store the fruit separately in this manner or you can mix the salad and keep the entire thing, minus the dressing, submerged in water.
   • Note that this is only necessary if you have fruit that will oxidize, like apples or pears. It is not necessary if your fruit salad only consists of citrus fruits or whole berries.
4. Refrigerate the fruit salad. Place the container of fruit salad in the refrigerator and chill until you are ready to serve it.
   • Many types of fruit need to be refrigerated in order to stay fresh, including most berries. All cut fruit should also be stored in the refrigerator. As such, virtually any prepared fruit salad will need to be chilled, even if there are no fruits in it that can oxidize.
   • Even in the refrigerator, you should only store fruit salad for three to five days at maximum. Even if you can preserve it past that point, much of the fruit will lose a good portion of its freshness.
5. Drain the water when ready to serve. Immediately before you intend to serve the fruit salad, take it out of the refrigerator and drain the water from it. Drain as much of the water away as possible.
   • You could also scoop the fruit out of the container with a slotted spoon.
6. Save the dressing until the end. Do not refrigerate the fruit salad with the dressing mixed in. Instead, prepare the dressing just before you plan to serve the fruit salad and toss the prepared fruit into it before dishing it out.

Miscellaneous Salads

1. Store in an airtight container. For the most part, other types of salads can be prepared ahead of time. Place the prepared ingredients into an airtight plastic container and seal it well. You will not need to make any other special storage preparations to keep various other salad types fresh.
   • Other types of salad you may consider saving include egg salad, potato salad, pasta salad, chicken salad, and tuna salad.
   • Food tends to spoil faster when exposed to air, so an airtight seal is essential if you really want to keep your salads both fresh and safe to eat.
2. Refrigerate the salad. All pre-cooked ingredients will need to be refrigerated in their airtight containers.
   • Since most other salad types include pre-cooked ingredient, most will also need to be refrigerated.
   • Bacteria is more likely to grow in food that sits out at room temperature. As such, refrigeration preserves the freshness of your food while also keeping it sanitary.
3. Add the dressing immediately before serving. You can usually preserve most types of salads longer if you add any dressing before you serve the salad instead of adding it before you store it. This is especially true of mayonnaise-based dressings.
4. Know how long the salad can last. Even after the dressing has been added, most salads can stay fresh and edible in the refrigerator for several days. As a general rule, a salad only stays fresh for as long as its fastest spoiling ingredient stays fresh.
   • Egg salad, potato salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, and mayonnaise-based pasta salad can last three to five days if stored in the refrigerator. Discard the egg salad if it is left out at room temperature for more than two hours or if it develops an "off" smell.
   • Pasta salad with a non-mayonnaise dressing can stay fresh for five to seven days.

Things You'll Need

• Salad spinner
• Clean paper towels
• Airtight plastic container

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