How to Make Wilted Lettuce Crisp Again
The tomatoes are getting a trivial wrinkly on the counter. The side salad I planned to make for dinner the other mean solar day was replaced by the more gratifying side dish of french fries. It's time to toss that salad earlier I waste more nutrient. Dang! Sorry, wilted lettuce in the bottom drawer again. Did I just waste another dollar, or is in that location something I can do to revive my greens?
Information technology's no hole-and-corner that cooking isn't a natural talent for me, and I would rather spend my time doing something else – like playing with my kids, writing for y'all, or getting bamboo placed under my fingernails.
BUT equally a wellness advocate and a cost-witting home executive, I spend a ridiculous amount of time in the kitchen cooking for my family.
Just like anything we have to do only don't desire to, nosotros detect shortcuts. Outsourcing meals (eating out or ordering in) is convenient, but non something we can practice every twenty-four hour period. Well, we could, just this would happen.
So I effort to work around my kitchen shortcomings to make healthy meals.
As I recollect about the kitchen hacks I've learned over the years, most of them I learned from my grandmother's kitchen. And then many of them I picked up just from watching her as a child.
As a tribute to my Grammie, who has been watching and messing with united states of america from heaven for almost vi years now, I share my favorite kitchen hacks with y'all in a section I call Grammie'due south Kitchen Hacks.
Grammie'south Kitchen
Allow me to introduce Patty. My Grammie was an Irish and High german redhead raised by a single mother in New York Urban center in the 1930's and 40's. She went to individual cosmic schoolhouse and raised hell on those poor nuns.
Grammie was left-handed, simply Catholics believed left-handed people were criminals or witches. The nuns whacked her hand with a ruler when she used her left hand to write.
Experiences like this made Grammie resourceful. At such a young age, she couldn't practice what was natural and easy for her – she had to acquire to do things in other ways. Grammie was an incredibly creative and talented adult female. I am extremely blessed to have learned her expertise in the kitchen.
Grammie's Kitchen Hack:
Place your wilted greens in a bowl, cover them with cold water, and add water ice cubes (optional). Wait twenty minutes to 1 hour for the magic to happen!
Whenever we would consume dinner at my Grammie's house, she would put the lettuce for the salad in a big bowl with h2o and water ice cubes. Grammie said information technology made the lettuce crispy. I never realized this tip would take limp, wilted leaves and turn them into fresh greens again!
I usually take greens on manus, especially since I got a salad spinner, only sometimes my intentions are improve than my deportment. Too many times I have put a head of lettuce in the drawer simply to find a sad heap of wilted greens a few days later.
I remembered the bowl of water ice water for the salad and thought I'd try it i day. I was so pleased with the result! My soft, wilted kale was well-baked and curly one time more!
What Happened to my Wilted Lettuce, Anyhow?
As a reluctant cook, I never realized I could accept something that went "bad" and make it edible again. Just let'due south get something straight. Greens that are sad, limp, or even brown accept non "gone bad." Browning is the natural process of oxidation that happens when enzymes in damaged cells see oxygen in the air. It is still safe to eat.
Lettuce has gone bad when information technology is slimy. Slimy ways bacteria or fungus is taking over.
Lettuce gets soft and limp because it loses water. Fruits and vegetables are generally water, with iceberg lettuce at 96% water. In the fridge, lettuce and other greens lose h2o to the air, the cells that hold the h2o shrink, and the outward appearance is wilted and limp.
This, by the way, is why we have "crisper" drawers in our refrigerators. If y'all put veggies in the drawers, the pocket-sized area volition keep the moisture in the veggies longer.
Why does wilted lettuce become crisp when it is soaked in water?
Soaking your lettuce in h2o volition cause osmosis – remember that from middle school science? Water moves from areas of lots of water to not so much water so everyone can share.
The water will plump upward the constitute cells and make the greens rigid and well-baked once again. Yummy!
The reason y'all should use common cold h2o, and even ice cubes if you have them, is a piffling more complicated. The short version is colder water is more dense, meaning the h2o molecules are closer together. Every bit in the film above, you tin can meet water molecules that are closer together form a college concentration and so more than water volition move into the cells faster.
I soak my greens directly in my salad spinner, drain, then employ the centrifugal force to dry. My salad spinner even doubles as storage, keeping my greens hydrated much like the crisper drawer in my fridge, but more visible. I detect I eat more greens when they are stored already washed in my salad spinner on the shelf. It is user-friendly, and I don't fall prey to the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality that causes my carrots to sprout in the bottom drawer.
I know I wasted a ton of money throwing away limp greens before I figured this out. Hopefully, yous learned something new to help you rock your kitchen today!
I am always looking for ways to feel fresh in the kitchen. I continue thinking some day I will fancy myself a melt if I learn enough tricks.
What are your favorite ways to revive less than fresh nutrient? Share your tips in the comments beneath!
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Source: https://www.eatmyscience.com/revive-wilted-lettuce/
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