Having a salad with dinner is always a nice thing, however if you don't have too much time and energy in the evening, it's best if you have already washed and prepared your greens, then it's much more likely you will actually eat them. Once you buy a nice bag or fresh bunch of salad greens, then it's a good idea to immediately wash and store them properly. One common problem with greens is that they quickly can turn bad – limp, soft and not very appetizing. So in order for the greens to stay clean, tasty, and crisp, there are a couple of things you should think about.
First of all, we like to clean all our greens, even if you buy them in a bag which says 'washed' on. You just never know, so it's always a good idea to give them a good wash, however first look through them for any bruised and wilted leaves. If you find those, then throw them away, you only want to keep the very best greens around.
To wash them, place the greens in a big bowl of cold water and swish them around to make sure any dirt, sand and insects are removed. If the greens are very sandy, then they might need two baths. When the salad is clean, dry it off in a salad spinner (this is the best invention ever. If you don't already have one, get one! It will make your life so much easier!)
Try to get the greens as dry as possible before transferring them to a bag. We like to roll the greens loosely in paper towels (you could also use clean tea towels) before we put them in a sealable plastic bag. You want to make sure that the moisture has somewhere to go, if you just put in damp greens in a plastic bag then they would quickly turn limp and wilted. If you dry the greens off right and store them like this, they should last for two to four days, or perhaps longer if they are heartier (like kale or collared greens.)
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