Salads are a big part of eating healthy, but making them ahead is tricky. You want to save time but the ingredients get soggy. Mason jar salads are great for that. You can save time by meal prepping the salads but they stay fresh and crisp until you are ready to enjoy them.
1. Start with a wide mouthed canning jar. They are great for not only adding ingredients but getting them back out when you are ready to eat. I like the quart sized jars the best for a single serving.
2. Always start with dressings at the base, using however much you like. This is a larger salad so about a couple tablespoons.
3. Next, top with non-absorbent hard vegetables such as carrot, cucumber, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), onion, beetroot (beets) and (bell) peppers. This is a barrier layer that will help make sure your greens won’t go soggy.
4. Now top with grains or pasta — this can be anything from quinoa to buckwheat, bulgur wheat, pasta or noodles.
5. Next add the protein, such as egg, chicken, tuna, meat, or cheeses like feta and Parmesan. Meats should be added on the day of eating if you’re making the salad ahead of time.
6. As an extra layer of protection, top with softer vegetables or fruit, such as tomatoes, avocado (with a squeeze of lemon to keep it green), mushrooms and strawberries.
7. Crunch time. Literally. Seeds, nuts and dried fruit are sprinkled on top.
8. The crisp, leafy greens are last to go on, perhaps even with a generous serving of herbs.
9. Seal tightly and store in the fridge until ready to eat.
10. When you are ready to enjoy, you can pour it all out into a bowl or you can shake it in the jar. The ingredients won’t mix together but it’s one less thing to wash.
11. These will last up to 5 days I would say, depending on the ingredients used.
