Crispy Lettuce

If your lettuce leaves have wilted, you can still have a crispy salad later on. I had this exact problem yesterday afternoon while making dinner; I pulled out the romaine and found the outer leaves were soft as cotton fabric. I pulled all of the leaves off of the core and washed them, letting them drain for a minute in the colander while I placed a large dish towel on the counter, folded in half. Without shaking too much water off of the leaves, I placed them in the towel and wrapped them loosely. I save and reuse plastic produce bags from the grocery store, so I grabbed one of those, placed the wrapped lettuce inside, and stuck it in the fridge for an hour. Voila! Crispy lettuce for dinner.

We had some leftover lettuce after dinner (everybody made a vinaigrette in their own salad bowl, so it was dressing-free), and it was the perfect size for a lunch salad today. I used the same damp dish towel to wrap it, and stuck it back inside the plastic bag before putting it back in the fridge overnight. I just had the yummiest salad with super crisp lettuce. Hard to believe it was the same wilted stuff I had pulled out of the fridge yesterday!