How An Ice Bath Will Take Your Bagged Salad To The Next Level

Getting all the veggies you need in a day can be a challenge made much easier with the help of bagged salad. Since these salads not only include pre-chopped lettuce and veggies but also crunchy add-ins and dressing, they offer a fast, easy, and flavorful way to prepare well-balanced meals. Of course, pre-chopped veggies often become wilted and unpalatable, but an ice bath provides a simple fix for that.

Submerging wilted lettuce (and other wilted veggies) in cold water revives them because most plant cells are full to the brim with water. Once these plants are harvested and unable to replenish their water supply via rain and roots, they begin to wilt. Soaking them reverses the effects of water loss, making them crisp, juicy, and delicious again. This is also why experts say the best way to store radishes is in a cool, moist place — it keeps them crunchy and fresh.

Though the most common advice says to use ice-cold water, some believe using warm water works better. The idea is that warm water helps relax the pores in the veggies' surface, allowing the water to soak in more easily. However, if your water is too warm, it could begin to break down the cell walls in your salad ingredients and cause them to wilt even more. Warm water may be a bit faster when it works, but using ice cold water takes less guesswork. It may take a little longer, but it works almost every time.

Using an ice bath to revive a wilted bagged salad is fairly straightforward. Simply fill a large bowl with ice, and fill a second slightly smaller bowl with the coldest water you can get. Set the small bowl inside the large bowl, on top of the ice. This helps keep the water super cold while your salad soaks. Make sure the top bowl is large enough to submerge everything — those bags often hold more than it seems they should.

Next, go through the salad, setting aside prepackaged toppings like sliced almonds or croutons, along with any dressing pouches. It's also important to pick through the salad itself and discard any fixings that look overly wilted or have begun to brown, since finding mushy lettuce in your delicious romaine and corn salad would be a huge let-down.

At this point, you can gently submerge all your salad veggies in the cold water. Soft veggies like iceberg lettuce and tomatoes should only need about 20 minutes, while carrots, onions, cabbage, and radishes may need to soak twice as long. As you remove the veggies from the water, pat them dry or line a plastic bag with paper towels, hold the bag closed, and twirl it in a circular motion to create a homemade salad spinner. Once dry, your salad ingredients should be crisp, cold, and ready to devour.