The Genius Way To Store Spinach For Non-Slimy Greens

Spinach is an amazing food. It's packed with nutrients and fiber (scientists have even engineered spinach plants to detect landmines and send out infrared signals via email). However, spinach also has a reputation for being a bit delicate. Once cooked, it shrinks down to almost nothing (seriously, sauté a whole bag and see what you end up with), while if it's stored raw it tends to get slimy pretty fast. It doesn't have to end that way, though. There's a simple solution to keeping spinach fresher for longer.

Next time you bring home a bag of spinach, dump it out into a salad spinner, like this model from Cuisinart. Because there's a little bit of space between the spinner basket and the outer bowl, any extra moisture that's hanging around on the leaves — which is what causes the spinach to go bad and get slimy — drips into the base and away from the produce.

You can wick away even more moisture if you place paper towels in the base of the basket or between your spinach in layers. This should keep your greens fresh and crisp for up to 10 days. It's not just for spinach, either — this storage hack works for all your greens like kale, arugula, and lettuce. (You can also keep your spinach dry by wrapping it in paper towels when storing it in the bag.)

There are some best practices you can follow to extend the life of your spinach, even if you're already storing it in a salad spinner. For starters, when choosing a bag at the grocery store, make sure you pick one that looks dry with no discolored leaves. If you bring home a bag that's already full of slimy spinach, that doesn't bode well for the lifespan of your greens. You'll also want to dab the spinach with paper towels before you put it into your salad spinner. You're trying to remove as much moisture as possible every step of the way, so start as you mean to go on.

You can also increase the chances of your spinach staying crisp if you use a larger salad spinner or multiple smaller spinners to avoid overcrowding the leaves. Greens that are pressed up against each other are more likely to hold moisture between them, so try and reduce those touch points. And since the moisture will come and claim all spinach in due time, it's good to have a backup plan — you can use it to make pesto in a pinch just before it starts to go bad.