A Salad Spinner Is Good for More Than Salads

As a recipe developer and cookbook author, I use my Microplane daily and don’t think I could live without my fish spatula. But a sturdy salad spinner is my top recommendation. It’s the difference between a great salad and one peppered with grit. And while I do eat a lot of salad, this kitchen tool has so many uses beyond just cleaning greens.

A salad spinner is effectively a colander and bowl bundled into one, and if you’re short on kitchen storage space (who isn’t?) this revelation will open up a whole new world of opportunities. While any salad spinner you have at home works, I swear by my large version from Oxo; and the BA staff loves Zyliss, for its fast results. Here are my favorite ways to use a salad spinner—besides salad.

Cauliflower and broccoli florets

Cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower and broccolini are best cooked when totally dry—that’s what gets you those crispy, burnished florets—but if you’ve ever tried to dry a head of broccoli you know how challenging this can be. Enter the salad spinner, which easily removes all that extra moisture in a few spins.

Leeks

Leeks have a reputation for being particularly dirty. Salad spinner to the rescue: First, remove the basket from the bowl and rinse sliced leeks to remove the most egregious grit. Then place the basket back in the bowl and let the leeks soak, agitating the water to release debris. Lift up the basket and pour out the dirty water. Repeat this soaking process until the water is clear. Finally, pulse the salad spinner until the leeks are dry.

Fritters

I love fritters, vegetable pancakes, and latkes alike, but I’ll admit that prepping the vegetables is painstaking. No matter how many times I wring out the kitchen towel, I always seem to have too much moisture to get the fritters truly crispy. Adding the shredded vegetables to the salad spinner was a total game changer. The veggies turn out clean and dry, with less physical exertion and no kitchen towel required.

Beans

If you’ve ever made a pot of beans, you know that it’s important to sort through the dried beans before cooking to remove any debris or small stones. A salad spinner streamlines this: Add the beans to the colander and cover with cold water. While the beans soak, the residue will fall to the bottom. You’ll still have to check if there’s any shriveled beans that need to be tossed, but otherwise you can simply remove the colander and you’re ready to get cooking.

Crudités

Whenever I need to keep vegetables (like radishes and cucumbers) crunchy before serving, a salad spinner does double duty, by keeping the veg crispy and quickly removing moisture before serving. Fill the salad spinner with cold water and add a few handfuls of ice, along with your veg of choice—this will keep them perky until you’re ready to eat. Once it’s time to serve, pour out the water and spin until the vegetables are dry. It’s not so much cleaning per se as it is eliminating a step of prep work. And, if you’re trying to be a bit more environmentally conscious, a less obvious perk of the salad spinner is saving paper towels and cutting down on excess waste.

Spin away