Here’s an easy little secret  for crisp lettuce that is washed and ready to use.

My son-in-law taught me this one about a year ago and I’ve been using it ever since.   It works especially well for Romaine and other leafy-type lettuces.

You don’t need any special bowl or salad spinning contraption.This suits me just fine because if you’re like me you don’t need any more superfluous  kitchen equipment on the counter or clogging your cupboard shelves.  I like things to remain simple and this is as simple as it gets.

How to have crisp lettuce on hand for up to (or over) a week:

1.  Wash your lettuce.  I usually do this with a colander in the sink and I gently separate all the lettuce leaves and spray water over them, making sure there is no sand or dead foliage etc. clinging to them.

2.  Gather up the leaves in your hands and gently shake the  water off, without bruising them.

3.  Depending on the size of the head of lettuce, layout 3-5 paper towels on the counter. (See Picture).   Spread drained lettuce leaves across the towels.  They will still have some moisture clinging to them and that’s a good thing.

4.  Gently roll up the spread out  lettuce leaves into the paper towels and slip the whole thing into a gallon-size  plastic zip-type bag and put in the refrigerator.

Your lettuce is now ready for use and may last well over a week and remain crisp.  The trick here is that  the the towels wick the moisture away from the lettuce and yet because of the plastic bag, it remains moist.

Oh!  And here’s one more little tip that I got from my mom many years ago.  Never ever use a  metal knife on lettuce unless you are serving it immediately.  The lettuce will rust very quickly.   –Laura