I bought this best-selling salad spinner three years ago, and it’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets
As much as I love indulging in junk food, I’ve always been a sucker for a good salad. Give me a bowl of mixed greens tossed with crunchy chopped veggies, dried cranberries, walnuts, crumbled blue cheese and a nice balsamic vinaigrette, and I’m one happy camper. However, I’m also a bit skeptical of the “triple-washed and ready to eat” claims that appear on a lot of bags of packaged greens at the grocery store (and I’ve found spots of dirt on the leaves in said bags on more than one occasion). So it’s anyone’s guess why it took me so long to buy myself a salad spinner.
Up until roughly three years ago, I had been washing all my greens by hand — romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, bok choy, you name it. And while this got the greens clean, it also took up an unnecessarily large chunk of time. So, on a Target trip one day in 2021, I decided to treat myself to the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner that happened to be on the same aisle as an item I had on my shopping list. (Strike while the iron’s hot, y’know?) And to this day, it’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets I own.
OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner, $29.95
This salad spinner consists of a clear, 6-quart plastic bowl, a plastic inner basket and a lid with a pump mechanism built into it. The lid also has a brake button to stop the spinner, along with a tab that you can push in to collapse the pump for easy storage. The bottom of the bowl features a rubberized non-slip ring that holds it in place while you spin, so you can use it with only one hand, if needed. The spinner is also dishwasher safe — just make sure you place it on the top rack.
To use the spinner, start by placing the basket into the bowl and adding your greens of choice. Fill the whole thing with water, swish the leaves around to remove any sediment and discard the water (or give your houseplants a drink with it). Then, place the lid on top and push down on the pump to start the spinner. This creates centrifugal force, which slings the water off the leaves and causes it to collect at the bottom of the bowl. After several pumps, I like to use the brake button on the lid to stop the spinner and pour out the remaining water before spinning an additional time. (It’s also kind of neat to see just how much water was removed in the process.)
Now, at first, a salad spinner might seem like a single-use kitchen gadget that takes up a lot of storage space for only one job. However, it’s not just for salads — you can also use it to clean berries, grapes and other small fruits and veggies. This thing also doubles as both a colander and a serving and/or mixing bowl, adding even more versatility.
And I’m not alone in my adoration for this OXO salad spinner. It’s a number-one best seller on Amazon with over 30,000 five-star ratings and plenty of rave reviews. “If you’re in the kitchen a lot, the OXO Good Grips Large Salad Spinner is ESSENTIAL!” said one reviewer. Another reviewer, who is “super pleased” with their purchase, said, “I have loved, loved how dry the veggies come out after a few spins.”
All in all, I can’t say enough good things about the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner. It’s efficient, versatile and comes at a wallet-friendly price point of under $30. (It also comes in a smaller size that’s ideal for washing fresh herbs — and while I haven’t personally tried the small version, it’s designed identically to the larger one, so I assume it works just as well.) So, if you’re ready to make easy work of washing practically any leafy vegetable under the sun, grab one of these salad spinners and thank me later.
In Partnership With Us Weekly and Woman’s World
This story was originally published October 21, 2024 at 2:00 PM with the headline "I bought this best-selling salad spinner three years ago, and it’s one of my favorite kitchen gadgets."
