Once upon a time, salad spinners were something that could only be ordered on late-night infomercials. We should know because we saw many infomercials touting these products, but they weren’t something that you could purchase in-store or even at major online retailers, yet. Fortunately, that has changed, and now just about anyone can buy these products to add to their kitchen. They’re a wide variety of different styles, and just about all of them work pretty well.
However, we have the feeling that not everyone is enthusiastic about these products. We feel that many people think that these products are only good for spinning salads dry—which to be fair, is the purpose of these products. We don’t think that’s the case, though. We feel that the best salad spinners are more than one-trick ponies. We feel that they’re products that can be used in a number of different ways. Want to learn how? If you do, then come with us as we think about some ways that salad spinners can be used.
Drying Pasta
We don’t know about you, but we often have a hard time getting excess water out of our pasta. If we let the pasta sit long enough in the colander to allow all of the water to drip out of it, then our pasta is already on its way to becoming sticky and less appetizing. Fortunately, a salad spinner solves that problem by removing water from the pasta quickly so it can be plated immediately. It works with all types of pasta but works exceptionally well with tubular pasta.
Removing Seeds From Canned Tomatoes
You might not believe this, but you can actually remove seeds from canned tomatoes. Notice that we said canned and not fresh, as this trick won’t work with fresh tomatoes at all. With canned ones, however, it works like a charm. Break those canned tomatoes up a little bit, throw them in the salad spinner and spin all of those bitter seeds out of it.
Getting Fresh Herbs Ready For Use
Another thing that salad spinners can be used for is getting fresh herbs ready to be used. Fresh herbs are much like lettuce in the fact that they need to be rinsed before they’re used, so the salad spinner is the perfect device for this process. Place the herbs in the salad spinner, rinse them off, and then give them a good spin. Just remember that you don’t need to remove the bands that hold the herbs together to use this method of rinsing and spinning them.
Use It To Wash Berries
Berries can also be used in a salad spinner to give them a bit of a bath before they’re used. This method works exceptionally well with those modern salad spinners that are equipped with a storage bowl. Just fill it up with water, place the strainer part of the spinner with the berries in it in the water, and allow them to soak for a few minutes. If you want, you can dump out the water and give the berries a spin, or if you’re afraid they’re going to bruise, just use the strainer part to drain them.
Use It To Proof Dough
This only works with models with a removable strainer and a clear storage bowl. Just because it’s a salad spinner doesn’t mean that it actually be used for spinning anything. You can simply remove the clear bowl from the spinner and use it to cover bread dough as you wait for it to rise. This is a great tip because how many of us have looked high and low for a clear bowl that we could cover our rising dough with as we’re waiting for it to be proofed? Quite a few we imagine.
Use It To Clean Other Vegetables (Other Than Lettuce)
Salad spinners don’t have to be used just for lettuce, they can be used for just about any vegetable you can imagine. We’ve washed and spun broccoli, leeks, and a whole lot of other veggies in our salad spinner to great effect.
Use It For Rinsing & Draining Canned Beans
Although we guess that people could use the serving bowl of a salad spinner to soak dry beans, the real magic of these devices is what they can do for canned beans. You can open a can of beans, give them a quick rinse and then spin them—all in the salad spinner. It’s a quick and easy way to squeeze out excess sodium from canned beans.
Use It For Defrosting Frozen Shrimp
We’re not sure where we heard this tip, but it’s been an absolute lifesaver for us. It allowed us to defrost our shrimp a lot faster than it ordinarily takes. All you have to do is place the frozen shrimp in room temperature water and then place it in the salad spinner. Give it a good spin, then toss out the water and redo the procedure. When you’re done, all you have to do is give the shrimp a spin to dry them, and they’re good to go! Quick, easy, and very convenient.
Use It To Make Crispy Seasoned Fries
Here, come closer. Want to know a secret? You can use your salad spinner to make crispier French fries. How is that possible? All you have to do is to use the salad spinner twice in the French fry creation process. Let’s go into further detail.
After you have finished soaking the cut potatoes for your fries, you can use it to remove the extra moisture from them. Then, once you’ve fried them, you can use the salad spinner to remove the excess oil from them to avoid them becoming soggy. Doing those two things will result in crispier fries.
If you want to take your French fry making game to an even higher level, you can also use the salad spinner to season the fries. Simply toss in some fine rosemary, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, fine oregano, fine dried basil, or black pepper with your finished fries, and give them a good spin. The salad spinner will more evenly distribute the spices than you ever could by hand.
Some Final Non-Food Salad Spinner Uses
To conclude this article, we’re going to talk about some of the other things that salad spinner can be used for—such as handling clothing. What do we mean? We mean that water can be easily removed from swimsuits by throwing them for a quick spin in a salad spinner or even using the salad spinner to wash delicate clothing. Didn’t we say that the salad spinner was versatile? Well, now you know, too.