Salad in a glass jar

With the weather we’ve been enjoying in recent weeks, it’s hard to believe that we are still only in springtime, as it has often seemed more like a fairly good British summer already. If it wasn’t for the Covid-19 lockdown, we would all have been enjoying plenty of trips to the beach, countryside walks and picnics in the park, even during April!

And with the great weather set to continue for the next few weeks at least, with only the occasional shower on the horizon, we owe it to ourselves to make the most of this time, getting the best out of each day even if we can’t leave our homes. In today’s blog post, we’re going to cover a great idea for tasty lunches - salads in glass jars. Being stuck at home is a challenge or an opportunity and it’s up to all of us to find the positives. Exploring some great new mealtime ideas is just one way to enjoy ourselves during lockdown.

Making salads in glass jars

The idea of making tasty and nutritious salads in glass jars has been around for a few years now, no doubt sparked off in some trendy cafe or restaurant in London or one of the other big cities. In essence, the idea is to layer different ingredients in a glass jar, before sealing with an airtight lid, ready to eat later in the day.

It’s the perfect way to create a healthy packed lunch, even if most of us don’t technically need a packed lunch at the moment, due to working from home. Visually, these salads in glass jars are highly appealing, too, as you can see every single ingredient that has gone into the salad. If you want to unleash your inner creative with a simple and elegant dish, the salad in a glass jar is for you!

The secret to fabulous salads in glass jars

You would be forgiven for thinking that all you have to do to make a salad in a glass jar is to grab your ingredients, wash and slice them, and then spoon them into your chosen jar. However, doing that, without giving any consideration to the ingredients and the order in which you add them to the jar, could leave you with a soggy and unsightly mush come lunchtime. The secret to success here involves a little understanding of chemistry and engineering!

When you make a regular salad in a bowl, no doubt you start with salad leaves, such as lettuce and rocket and then you add other ingredients such as sweetcorn, beans, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and carrots, before drizzling a good splash of olive oil or salad dressing all over everything.

Adopt this approach with a salad in a jar, however, and your lunch might not be the fabulous and tasty creation you’d hoped for. That’s because if you drizzle the oil from the top of the filled jar, it will cover everything in the jar and by the time lunchtime comes around, your jar will contain plenty of soggy, oily mush.

Instead, try adding the oil to the jar first, so that it sits at the bottom out of the way. The next layer of ingredients should be crisp vegetables that can withstand being coated in that oil or salad dressing. This is where your tomatoes, carrots, celery and cucumber should go. Make sure that you add enough of this crunchy layer to clear the oil level completely. That way, your next layer is ‘safe’ from the oil, and won’t go all mushy over time.

For this ‘safe’ layer, you might include sweetcorn, or kidney beans. It’s still wise to avoid layering in some of the most vulnerable ingredients at this stage...so whilst sweetcorn and kidney beans are better not swimming in oil, it won’t be a complete disaster if the jar gets tilted a little and they do come into contact with the oil. And by layering in these ‘buffer’ ingredients, you are adding more distance from the oil for those ingredients that would really suffer if they spent a couple of hours marinading in oil unintentionally.

The ingredients that fall into this category might include hard-boiled eggs or cheese, which would definitely not be improved by a coating of oil or salad dressing. After that layer, we start to move to the really good stuff….try adding a layer of couscous, quinoa or rice next. This will give your meal in a jar some bulk and leave you feeling completely full and satisfied at the end of your lunch.

Finally, it’s time for your salad leaves, along with any seeds or nuts you’d like to add. Sesame seeds, poppy seeds and chopped walnuts all make great salad additions, but the sky really is the limit when it comes to creating your own unique salad. And of course, you can rustle up a new creation every day, provided that you stick to the basic layering techniques above.