Let me give you a scenario. You're extremely hungry and craving for salad, and you know you have that leftover lettuce stored back in your fridge. You think that vegetable will be your lifesaver, and you open the crisper expecting to begin making the salad. However, all you see is some brown, mushy vegetable. That happens quite a lot, right?

If storing lettuce for your salad is a pain and most of the time it only takes the lettuce 2 days to grow wilted brown, then this article is right for you. In here, I'll talk about some tips on how to store lettuce to ensure that you'll have your vegetables crisp and fresh when you're going to make your next salad.

The fact remains that lettuce is mostly tossed in the garbage when not stored properly. It's such a waste if your family is in a tight budget since lettuce is not really that cheap. And either purchased in a bag or by the head, if you keep storing lettuce the wrong way, they will go bad in such a short amount of time.

However, if you're given a choice between purchasing a bag of lettuce or buying them by head, I say the second choice is always the best one. It is quite evident that bagged lettuce can turn brown faster than its whole counterpart. That's because all the handling, cutting and sealing takes toll on the freshness of the vegetable. Oftentimes, you can even see the evidence of wilting just when bagged lettuce goes off the storage shelves.

If you're buying from the grocery, you'll notice the storage constantly misted. This keeps the vegetables hydrated. The fact remains that you cannot do the same technique at home, but no worries there, since when it comes to lettuce, you're better off drying it out than storing it wet. After buying, rinse the lettuce of dirt and other impurities, but before storing them, be sure to use a paper towel to dry the leaves entirely.

After drying, be sure to put them inside a dry and sealed plastic bag too. This protects the lettuce from outside moist. Condensation will still occur inside the plastic bag though, so for added protection, put some paper towels inside the lining of the bag. This simple trick will add about a week into the life of your lettuce. Congratulations, your salad is now supplied with fresh vegetable for 7 whole days!

Most refrigerators already have a crisper tray so be sure to put your sealed lettuce bags in there for proper storage. For refrigerator settings, try putting the temperature of your fridge within the middle of the temperature scale, and if you have a humidity setting, keep it under low humidity. This is because humidity helps in acquiring moisture into your lettuce leaves. Temperature also plays a vital role since if you set it too low, you risk freezing the moisture on the leaves, causing them to become mushy.

If you really like making salad, you'll have several other fixings in your fridge. Be sure to segregate them into separate containers and don't add them to the lettuce. Again, moisture is the enemy, and the juices from other vegetables and dressings can help make your salad wilt. Brown and nasty lettuce leaves is one thing to get worried about, the next thing would be your other vegetables. Vegetables have a habit of influencing other veggies next to them, causing you more waste than what was initially just your lettuce fixings.

Just be sure to remember these quick tips when storing your lettuce. It has always been the most used vegetable salad fixing and is a very important ingredient for most salad enthusiasts. As long as you follow these tips, you'll always have some fresh, green and healthy salads whenever you crave for it.