Though you wash salad greens thoroughly, you don’t want the leaves to remain wet or your salad dressings will slide right off. That’s why a salad spinner is essential for any home cook. A salad spinner uses centrifugal force to spin the water away from the salad greens to the sides of the container. The large pump action ones are the best. You don’t have to crank the thing. You just pump the pump in the middle and around the salad basket goes. It has a non-skid base to keep the spinner from flying around your kitchen and comes with a brake that will slow the basket so you can dive right into your greens.

Some models come with a suction cup base and others have a crank on top instead of a pump. Whatever model you get, make sure it the basket comes with a solid bottomed bowl. There are some out there with holes in the bottom so you have to use them over the sink. Otherwise, you get water all over the place.