Monday, April 23, 2012

Mason Jar Salads

I'm not the first to be quite excited about the idea of putting together salads in mason jars for a quick grab 'n go healthy lunch/snack option.  I'm particularly pleased with my latest batch, so I thought I'd share....



Ingredients:
In my latest batch, I made 3 jars full (how big are these.. roughly 500-600mL? They're pretty standard.  For some I used old jam jars instead, although they're a little harder to shake out since the opening is a little smaller) of salad... so the ingredients below were split up between the 3.  Adjust amounts to fit the number of jars you're hoping to fill!

Dressing:

  • juice of 1/2 lemon + 1/2 lime
  • roughly the same amount of olive oil as the lemon/lime juice
  • a small clove garlic, minced
  • pinch of salt
  • black pepper


Salad Stuff:
Here's my latest creation... but be creative and try whatever sounds good to you!

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, cooked (but then I ate some of it, so probably about 1/3 cup would have been enough... that is, about 1 and 1/3 c cooked quinoa)
  • 1/2 jalapeno pepper, diced small
  • several sundried tomatoes, sliced (I used about 3-4 per jar - enough for a thin layer)
  • 1/2 a yellow bell pepper, diced
  • frozen edamame beans, thawed (actually they were still frozen when I threw them in)
  • frozen corn, thawed just like the edamame :)
  • cilantro, chopped
  • chunk of cucumber, diced
  • some sliced almonds
Directions:

Mix up the dressing ingredients and distribute it between the jars first (at the bottom).  Then layer the other ingredients in a way that looks pretty/makes sense.  Whatever is at the bottom soaking in the dressing should be resistant to getting wilty or icky when soaked in liquid - I put the sundried tomatoes in first to marinate them and they were delicious!  Since my quinoa was still pretty warm, I put it on top of one of the frozen veggies which wouldn't be badly affected by a little heating.

When you're ready to eat it, just dump it into a bowl and grab a fork!





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