Salad Tips: Prepare Salads In Advance!

Summer’s diet is lighter and great for salads 

There have been many times when I have made and packed a salad for lunch or to take away for later, put everything in a plastic container and ended up with a bit of a soggy mess for salad lol, urrrggghh!

Here’s one easy way to make salads in advance and keep them fresh – use a dry mason jar (avoid moisture to keep things crisp!). When packed correctly it stays very crisp and fresh! I’m now doing this 2-3 days in advance with no issues so far 🙂

Layers should go something like this:

♦ Bottom layer is dressing or other wet ingredients, keeping them away from things we want to keep crisp… this is key. You need to keep the dressing away from the lettuce to keep it from getting soggy.

♦ Second layer needs to be a hearty vegetable like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc. Think about veggies that would taste good marinated in dressing. You will need a good amount of these vegetables to keep the dressing and lettuce separate.

♦ Third layer is proteins or grains. This could be eggs, beans, rice, quinoa, pasta, etc.

♦ Next add the lettuce or greens. Try to make sure this layer is as dry as possible so if you have rinses your lettuce, give it some air time to dry off or shake it a bit before putting in.

♦ Last, you would add seeds or nuts.

♦  [Optional] Top it all off: Colourful ingredients to perk up your taste buds when you pop open the jar – fruit, edible flowers, herbs..

Recipes I’m loving right now:

Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato, Pasta, and Spinach

3 Recipe Combinations To Try

Salad dressings: Balsamic vinegar + EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) + Peppercorn spice blend for the dressing. You can try oil/lemon, creamy dressings, tahini/lemon/oil, citrus and more as your liquid infusion.

Green Garden
EVOO/Balsamic/Peppercorn spices dressing
Diced persian cucumbers
Diced tomato
Augula + baby spinach
Raw pistachios
Edible flowers
Diced dried apricots

Butter Bean Bliss
EVOO/Balsamic/Peppercorn spices dressing
Sweet Maui onion, diced
Butter beans
Arugula + baby chard
Raw walnuts
Cajun Spiced Quinoa
Diced dried apricots

Sunny Kale Kruncher
EVOO/Balsamic/Peppercorn spices dressing
Radish, diced
Sweet Maui onion, diced
Walnuts
Kale + shredded carrots + cabbage, chopped
Seedless tangerine segments

Quinoa Oasis
EVOO/Balsamic/Peppercorn spices dressing
Red onion
Cajun Spiced Quinoa
Kale + Carrots
Walnuts
Edible flowers

Ta da! No excuse now for not getting in your greens. “Like”  and share if you’re a big salad lover! 🙂