Best way to store salad greens

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Whitepan

Assistant Cook
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
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2
I live alone and often find that salad greens and vegetables go bad before I can use them all. I've started using Ziploc Produce Bags, and that seems to help. I own a Foodsaver, and I've seen on some vacuum sealing sites that they recommend using vacuum-sealed containers or mason jars to store lettuce and other greens. I'm wondering which is better - a bag that allows 'breathing,' like the Ziplocs, or something airtight and vacuum sealed?
 
I use a regular ziplock bag with a moist paper towel in it. This seems to work best for me.
 
Hi, and welcome to Discuss Cooking :)

There's a lot of water in salad greens, which would condense on the inside of a vacuum-sealed bag and promote rotting. It's also time-consuming and a PITA to re-seal it every time you make a salad or grab a leaf for a sandwich.

I use a regular ziplock bag and don't close it tight, so moisture can escape.
 
Welcome, Whitepan. :flowers:

I put a dry paper towel in with my greens, and replace it when it gets damp.
 
I take them out of that thin "saran wrap" type plastic bag they have in the produce isle and put into the heavier bag they put your groceries in. The heavier bags don't stick to the produce which seems to rot it quickly. If its wet or delicate like cilantro I wrap it in paper towels before putting in the bag.
 
I buy 'Spring greens' at Trader Joe's and here's what I learned (can't remember where) once you slit the bag open, take out some greens and go to close the bag (I use an alligator clip) exhale into the greens, the carbon dioxide is suppose to help keep the greens fresh longer... :ermm: suppose to... it has worked for so far for me anyways...
 
I buy 'Spring greens' at Trader Joe's and here's what I learned (can't remember where) once you slit the bag open, take out some greens and go to close the bag (I use an alligator clip) exhale into the greens, the carbon dioxide is suppose to help keep the greens fresh longer... :ermm: suppose to... it has worked for so far for me anyways...

So you breathe onto food you are going to serve to others? :huh:

Like others, I wrap greens loosely in a paper towel in store in a partially open Ziploc bag. It seems to work well.
 
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I store my salad greens in my salad spinner
Greens from the garden will last two weeks
in it. Just make sure the lettuce and the spinner
are dry.

Josie
 
Mine seem to keep well by just keeping them in the crisper drawer in a plastic bag and checking on them every so often.
Might have to give a paper towel a try. :rolleyes:

K-girl, You can breath on any veggies you serve me and I wouldn't care. I'm not scared of no darned Cooties. :LOL:

As long as I don't have first hand knowledge of what happens to my foodstuffs before I get it I'm good to go. :)

Sometimes not knowing is the best thing. ;)

If the veggies are fresh is what matters. :chef:
 
Don't you wash the greens before eating them?
Yes. I wash and run them through the salad spinner BEFORE I put them in the fridge. I often don't have much time to cook when I get home from work in the evening, so I like to have veggies prepped as much as possible in advance.

I would never dream of exhaling into the bags I'm storing veggies in. But then again, I'm usually feeding more than just myself.
 
How would adding carbon dioxide help? Plants give off carbon dioxide when they aren't photosynthesizing and the little light in the refrigerator goes off when you shut the door, so no light for photosynthesis.
 
I don't find it necessary to do this - maybe because I buy romaine hearts and not pre-cut greens - but this describes the science: How to Make Salad Greens Last Longer… Using Your Breath or Homemade CO2 « Food Hacks
I had to read that twice to find the "science". "...It makes sense, too. Greens of all kinds are packaged in specially designed plastic bags to maintain a balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen, since carbon dioxide halts the process of deterioration in greens." Yes, there is a link to the process of deterioration which states that CO2 can slow the natural aging process in greens.

If the greens are still alive, they are producing carbon dioxide. It's a part of plant respiration. If the greens were in the light, they would still be photosynthesizing and producing oxygen. But, the greens are in the dark, in the fridge, so they are producing more CO2, not oxygen.
 
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