Keep a Salad Fresh
Everyone knows a good salad is based on the texture and freshness of its ingredients. Therefore, keeping a salad fresh is of overall importance when intending to eat it at a later date. You'll have to deliberately set out to preserve a salad's freshness with these steps, but it's worth it when you eat it.
Instructions
1. Keep the ingredients separate. Unless you are 100 percent sure you will soon be able to consume a fully prepared salad with mixed ingredients, it is best to keep them separated. Keeping the ingredients separate will ensure that moisture will not speed up the decomposition process. For example, ingredients such as tomatoes should not be stored in the same package as lettuce in order to extend the life of both of the ingredients. Making individual serving sized portions should help prevent mixing.
2. Store the ingredients. Provide packaging with an air tight seal or close to it. Plastic zip bags and airtight containers with fitted lids are optimal but simply covering a bowl full of the ingredients with plastic wrap will suffice as well. When placing the ingredients in a plastic bag, try to remove as much air as possible.
3. Refrain from leaving it out for long periods. Time is not your friend when it comes to salad. Leaving your salad ingredients out at room temperature will allow harmful bacteria to multiply as well as give pests, such as house flies, a chance to lay eggs on your fresh greenery.
4. Refrigerate your salad. As soon as you are done with the materials for your salad, store them in containers and refrigerate them quickly. Placing them in the crisper will help to slow down the aging process as well. The crisper is a drawer in the refrigerator that is usually located near or at the bottom.
5. Buy the freshest product available. This may be the most important and useful step of all. Purchasing and picking the freshest produce available will ensure that your salad will have a longer storage life in the future. You can tell if items such as lettuce or spinach are not fresh if there is slight browning of the leaves. Tomatoes should be somewhat firm to the touch when they are fresh and have tight skin.
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