A salad spinner is the most efficient way to get your salad greens clean and dry. If you're like me you want to have as many leafy green vegetables as possble in your diet. With all of the e coli and other bacteria scares, you want to get them really clean. Yes you can saute them or boil them to kill the bugs, but if you love eating crisp and crunchy leafy greens raw in salads, you need to get them clean. And it's hard to get them really clean and then dry. If you don't dry them properly, they will quickly wilt - resulting in a loss of very expensive food. Can you believe the asking price for a head of lettuce these days?

Of the many salad spinners available on Amazon, five have gotten high marks and consistently good ratings - the Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner, Starfrit Salad Spinner, Progressive International Salad Spinner, Zyliss Easy Spin Salad Spinner, and the Oxo Stainless Steel Salad Spinner. Here's some information and specifications on each of them, to help you choose which one is for you.

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Shown to the right, the easy-to-use Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner requires that you use only one hand to operate it. Just push the knob in the center up and down. So you don't need to hold it in place with the other hand. This is great if you have arthritis or tendonitis in one of your hands or wrists and aren't always able to hold it with two hands. You can even lock the handle in the down position and store your greens in the Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner, so there's no need to buy a lettuce saver. Clean up is a snap because it's top rack dishwasher safe.

The Starfrit Salad Spinner is a traditional side handle design. The lid stopper button halts the spinning leafy greens immediately. Non-slip feet are included in the design for added stability. You'll be amazed at how much water this salad spinner and all the others take out. No more wasting scads of paper towels. Just spin until the lettuce and other leafy greens meet your standards. You'll notice that the salad dressing now clings to your greens instead of pooling on the bottom of the salad bowl. The interior bowl is removable and pretty enough to bring to the table.

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You'll notice straight off that the Progressive International Salad Spinner has a long handle for your to hold, while you dry your lettuce and other leafy greens. It also has a pour spout on both sides so left-handed people (like me!) can easily use it as well. There's just the two of us and the small 2.5 quart capacity is perfect. A small salad spinner is great for herbs and smaller greens. I do like the fact that the inside basket comes out so you can easily clean it.

If you need to serve salad to 4 to 6 people, then the Zyliss Easy Spin Salad Spinner is a great choice for you. It's even great if there's just two of you and you don't want to fuss with salad every single day! I've found that when I carefully clean and dry my leafy green vegetables I can put them in a bag in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. This is a big help on busy days. I'm also partial to salad spinners where you push down on the center to create the spinning.

 

If you prefer stainless steel food preperation equipment, yes, there are stainless steel salad spinners. Here's one from Oxo, one of the most trusted names in kitchen gadgets and tools. You can't see the leafy greens spinning on the side, but the cover is clear so you can see from the top. Just use one hand to push down on the center and you'll begin spinning. The button locks down for convenient storage. You can use the basket and base separately. So there's no need to use a second serving bowl. (Save on the clean up time.) The Bowl capacity is 6.34 quarts and the basket capacity is 4.95 quarts. So you'll have room to add tomatoes and other salad ingredients.

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