Does Storing Lettuce in Water Keep It Fresh for Longer?

Some people claim storing lettuce in water will keep it fresh for as long as a month—and we tried it out to see if it really works.

Enjoying a large crisp salad is pretty much a universal lunch go-to. Still, despite your best efforts, there are probably times your produce haul starts to get a bit wimpy and soggy before you can finish it all. So when a TikTok video from creator tastegreatfoodie claimed to offer a trick to keep lettuce fresh and crisp for up to a month, it’s no surprise that nearly 200,000 people started paying attention.

The basic hack is simply to submerge lettuce in water. Sounds easy enough, right? We weren’t sure, so we turned to the pros in the Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen to get some answers. Here’s what we learned.

How to Store Lettuce in Water to Keep It Fresher

According to the video, all you need to do to keep lettuce fresh for as long as 30 days is grab your leaves (make sure to wash them well first!) and place them in a container or jar with a lid. Fill to the top with cool water, cover, and store in the fridge. Switch out the water with fresh water every couple of days, and that’s it—your lettuce supposedly won’t get brown, limp, and unappetizing for much, much longer than it will just in your fridge drawer.

Once you’re ready to put your lettuce to use, simply drain the leaves and pat them dry (or use your handy salad spinner) to get your greens ready for your next dinner salad.

Related: Will an Ice Water Bath Bring Mushy Strawberries Back to Life?

Does storing lettuce in water really keep it fresher, longer?

To test this trendy lettuce storage hack, our Test Kitchen submerged both romaine lettuce leaves and a whole head of romaine in water. The lettuce you see above on the paper towels in the image on the left is lettuce that was covered with cold water and chilled for five days. (The bowl in the background is a head of romaine stored whole for five days that became a little soft, so the core was cut off and placed back in the bowl of water, which seemed to crisp it again nicely.) The image on the right shows the lettuce after 10 days. The Test Kitchen reported the lettuce leaves getting a little softer, but the whole head in the water is still nice and crisp.

Our Test Kitchen points out that storing leaves versus the whole head of lettuce is preferred, as it takes up less fridge space, even though the whole head stayed crisper when stored intact. Since it appears lettuce leaves can lose some crispness after 10 days, even when stored in water, we’re thinking a week might be the optimal storage time to use this method for lettuce leaves. If you’re storing a head of lettuce, it should keep for 10 days and stay perfectly crisp.

Should you try storing lettuce leaves in water to keep them fresh?

It’s definitely worth giving this lettuce storage hack a try. Commenters on the original video asked about shredded lettuce or other leafy greens, and this hack should work with those, as well. Just don’t expect your greens to last a full month—this hack works in the short-term, but it doesn’t work miracles.

Related: 33 Fruits and Veggies You Should Refrigerate and 7 You Shouldn’t

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Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens.