Storing and Cleaning Spinach

I'm probably making this post a little late as my own spinach is starting to go to seed. I guess it's time to pull it up. Here are a few tidbits about spinach:



Washing and Storing

I usually clip my spinach with scissors and then put it directly in my salad spinner basket. Do you have one of these? I love them! Thanks to my sister Judy who gave me one quite a few years back. It is one of my favorite kitchen items.

Google it and find out more about it. Basically it's great for storing and washing any kind of greens, and it stores them for a very long time.

Back to the spinach:

If the spinach is a small batch I just fill the bowl of the salad spinner with water and place the spinach in the basket. If it is a large batch I usually put it in my sink and soak it in water. As it soaks in the water I swish it around every so often. The sand and dirt will go to the bottom of the bowl or sink. I then empty the water and repeat about 3 times. I don't know if it's just me, but I find the spinach collects a lot of dirt and needs it. If you have a salad spinner throw the spinach directly in the basket (with the bowl empty of water) and spin it. It will dry all the leaves. If you don't have a spinner just use a strainer/colander and then dry w/ paper towels. If you have a small batch of spinach growing in the garden you could probably just store it in the strainer.

I have a lot of spinach and lettuce growing in my garden so it doesn't help me to store it in the spinner, as I use the spinner a lot. I take a gallon sized ziplock baggie and place the dried spinach inside. I also fold two paper towels and put them on both sides of the bag. This helps keep the moisture away from the spinach and it lasts a lot longer. I have 1 bag of spinach that has easily been in the fridge for over 2 weeks, and it is still as crisp and fresh as the day I packaged it.

** Note: This method works well for storing any greens.