The #1 Kitchen Gadget for the Best Salad Recipes

I’m a salad aficionado and make big lunch salads every day. I am always on salad duty for all dinners (holidays included), so my family can attest that it’s a skill I was seemingly born with. While the ingredients in my concoctions are constantly changing, I rely on a few essential kitchen tools to make the best, most balanced bowls. 

One of those gadgets for expert salad-making is my compact OXO mandoline slicer. Why? It can seamlessly achieve what my chef’s knife cannot: paper-thin slices of ingredients like radish, cucumber, carrot, strawberries, shallot, cabbage, pears, squash and more. Every time I make a salad, I’m so glad I have this $17 tool to help. 

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OXO Good Grips Mandoline Slicer 

This OXO mandoline is the best tool for easy and fast prep for high-fiber salads, high-protein salads and more. It has the classic stainless steel and wide surface area design this tool is known for and fits a variety of ingredients. I love how the side tab makes it easy to quickly adjust the thickness of your slices—use it to toggle between settings for the perfect cut. I tend to choose the cut size based on the salad or the ingredients. For example, radishes and carrots are always sliced very thin, while cabbage and cucumbers are sliced on a thicker setting. What’s great about getting the slices thin and even is that every bite in the salad tastes the same. You’re also getting the benefit of textural excitement because the thinner, consistent slices offer a different crunch and balance to the salad when mixed. 

What makes this mandoline perfect for delicious salads is its compact size and shape. It only measures around 11 inches long, including the handle, and 4 inches wide. It’s slim and lightweight, too. It was designed to lay right over your bowl, so I can let my sliced ingredients fall onto my salad. I appreciate the addition of the nonslip handle because many other compact mandoline slicers don’t have an area to grab. It has a nonslip base so that if I lay the mandoline on the countertop, it doesn’t slide around. 

I have another OXO mandoline that I swear by, but it’s too bulky for everyday use and can be tedious to clean. This mandoline solves that problem completely. Its handheld design is easy to reach for and always big enough for the ingredients I need to slice. Even after years of use, the blade is still sharp enough to cut through heartier ingredients like potatoes, peppers and carrots. It’s swift to wash it by hand with warm soapy water and a sponge—nothing sticks to it.  

Because we’re fast approaching spring and summer, produce will soon be aplenty. That means I’ll be grabbing this mandoline more than ever. I can’t wait to make the first big spring salad of the season because I know I have this genius kitchen gadget on hand—and you should too, especially since it’s only $17 at Amazon. 

Shop More Salad-Making Tools We Swear By: 

Kitchendao Salad Dressing Shaker 

OXO Good Grips Citrus Squeezer 

Bentgo Salad Container 

OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner 

OXO Good Grips Prep and Go Leakproof Squeeze Bottles 

At the time of publishing, the price was $17.