Después de lavar la lechuga, la dejamos en el escurridor mientras mi tía buscaba el batidor.

Después de + infinitive is a very common way to say after doing something when the subject is clear from the context.

So:

• Después de lavar la lechuga = After washing the lettuce

This structure is shorter and more natural here than using a full clause.

You could say:

• Después de que lavamos la lechuga...

but that sounds more explicit and is usually less elegant in a sentence like this. Native speakers often prefer después de + infinitive when possible.

A useful pattern:

• antes de comer = before eating
• después de estudiar = after studying
• después de lavar la lechuga = after washing the lettuce

The subject is understood from the main clause: la dejamos.

That means the sentence implies that we washed the lettuce and then we left it in the drainer.

Spanish often leaves the subject unstated when it is obvious from the verb ending or context. So lavar does not name the subject directly, but here it is naturally understood as the same people as in dejamos.

Spanish often uses the definite article more broadly than English, especially with everyday objects, food, and things already understood in the situation.

So:

• lavar la lechuga literally = wash the lettuce

Even if English might sometimes say wash lettuce, Spanish usually prefers la lechuga here.

This is very normal:

• Corté la cebolla = I cut the onion
• Lavamos la fruta = We washed the fruit
• Guardó el pan = He/she put away the bread

That la is not the article. It is a direct object pronoun meaning it.

It refers back to la lechuga.

So:

• la lechuga = the lettuce
• la dejamos = we left it

Spanish usually uses object pronouns instead of repeating the noun once it has already been mentioned.

Compare:

• Lavamos la lechuga y la dejamos en el escurridor.
  We washed the lettuce and left it in the drainer.

Because lechuga is feminine singular, the pronoun is la.

Other examples:

• Compré la mesa y la puse aquí.
• Vi el libro y lo abrí.

In Spanish, object pronouns normally go before a conjugated verb.

So:

• la dejamos
• lo vi
• te llamo

That is the standard position.

Pronouns can attach to the end only in certain cases, especially with:

• infinitives: dejarla
• gerunds: dejándola
• affirmative commands: déjala

In your sentence, dejamos is a normal conjugated verb, so la must come before it: la dejamos.

This is one of the most important things to notice in the sentence.

• dejamos is pretérito
• buscaba is imperfecto

Why dejamos?

The preterite is used for a completed action seen as a whole:

• la dejamos en el escurridor
  We put/left it in the drainer.

This is a finished event.

Why buscaba?

The imperfect is used for an action that was in progress, ongoing, or backgrounded in the past:

• mientras mi tía buscaba el batidor
  while my aunt was looking for the whisk

So the idea is:

• one completed action happened
• during an ongoing background action

This is a very common Spanish contrast:

• Entré mientras ella hablaba.
• Apagamos la luz mientras ellos cenaban.

Because mientras often introduces an action that is ongoing in the background.

Here, mi tía buscaba el batidor suggests she was in the middle of looking for it while the other action happened.

So:

• mientras + imperfect often = while someone was doing something

If you used buscó, it would sound more like a separate completed event, which usually does not fit as naturally with mientras in this context.

Compare:

• La dejamos en el escurridor mientras mi tía buscaba el batidor.
  We left it in the drainer while my aunt was looking for the whisk.

This paints the search as in progress.

Yes, it could, but Spanish usually omits subject pronouns unless they are needed for emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

So both are possible:

• La dejamos en el escurridor...
• Nosotros la dejamos en el escurridor...

The version without nosotros is more natural in most contexts.

Spanish verb endings already show the subject:

• dejamos = we leave / we left, depending on context

Because of that, nosotros is often unnecessary.

In standard modern Spanish, possessives like mi, tu, su, nuestro normally replace the article rather than appear with it.

So you say:

• mi tía
• mi casa
• nuestro coche

not:

• la mi tía
• la mi casa

That older or regional structure exists in some varieties or historical language, but it is not standard modern Spanish.

Escurridor comes from escurrir, meaning to drain.

In a kitchen context, escurridor can mean something used for draining water, depending on the situation:

• a colander
• a draining rack
• something you leave washed food in so the water runs off

In this sentence, it is the place where the lettuce is left to drain after being washed.

So it is a very logical kitchen word:

• escurrir = to drain
• escurridor = drainer / draining container / colander

Batidor is a noun related to batir, meaning to beat or to whisk.

In a kitchen context, el batidor usually means a whisk. In some contexts, it can also refer to another beating or mixing utensil, but whisk is the most likely meaning here.

It is masculine because the noun is batidor, which takes the article el:

• el batidor

Many Spanish nouns ending in -dor are masculine:

• el secador
• el comedor
• el batidor

The gender is grammatical; it does not mean the object is somehow masculine in a real-world sense.

Because grammatical gender in Spanish belongs to the noun itself.

• la lechuga is feminine
• el escurridor is masculine
• el batidor is masculine

Sometimes the ending helps:

• nouns ending in -a are often feminine: lechuga
• nouns ending in -dor are often masculine: escurridor, batidor

But this is not a perfect rule, so gender often has to be learned with the noun.

A good habit is to learn nouns with their article:

• la lechuga
• el escurridor
• el batidor

Formally, dejamos can be either:

• present: we leave
• preterite: we left

The form is the same.

In this sentence, the context makes it clearly preterite:

• Después de lavar...
• mientras mi tía buscaba...

The whole sentence is describing past actions, so dejamos is understood as we left.

This kind of ambiguity in form is normal in Spanish, and context usually solves it immediately.