How to Pack Salad in a Jar

Special Equipment

• Mason jars
• Vacuum sealer

The holidays have come and gone,  taking with it all the rich holiday dishes, and leaving me to jump start a cleaner diet. I’m bringing in the big guns…my mason jars, and my vacuum sealer.

I wish I was the clever one who came up with this idea.  I completely, unabashedly got this idea from the website Salad in a Jar. The vacuum sealer allows you to keep the salad fresh.  The vertical design of the jar ensures that only the bottom portion is exposed to the dressing, so you simply add the chunkier stuff there and all your leafy greens sit on top.  The result is that you can make several salad jars in advance, vacuum seal them, and they’ll stay fresh all week long.

The best part is that you can vacuum seal any food type really, to make it last longer. I use this to save my homemade chicken broth, leftover tomato sauce, marinara sauce…anything that I want to keep in the fridge that needs to stay fresh for more than three days.

For this salad, I’m just using some romaine, and a few fixings.

All you need to do is put the dressing on the bottom, then the chunkier parts of your salad, then top with the leafy greens and dry toppings.

Then, it is ready to vacuum seal. Place the flat mason lid on the jar and put the wide-mouth sealer on. Then, place the vacuum sealer on top and turn on. You’ll hear it begin to seal and in about 10 seconds, the sound will change slightly indicating that the air is gone. Then, remove the wide-mouth sealer. The lid should be vacuum-sealed shut tight. Then, twist the lid ring on. That’s it!

Salad in a Jar

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Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Author: Four to Cook for

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of balsamic dressing
• Chunky veggies like broccoli, carrots, tomatoes
• Leafy veggies like romaine, spinach, cabbage
• Seeds nuts, or dried fruit (I used pepita, sunflower, and cranberry)
• Cheese crumbles
• Cubed or shredded meat I used cubed chicken

Instructions

• Put the salad dressing on bottom.
• Layer in the chunkier veggies.
• Layer in the leafy veggies.
• Add seeds, cheese, and/or meat.
• Seal with sealer and then close it with the lid ring.

Notes

I tried to be generic in the ingredients because you can use practically any salad fixing you want. The key is to layer dressing first, then a chunky veggie. If you layer the leafy veggie, it will get soggy.

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below or tag @fourtocookfor and hashtag #fourtocookfor on Instagram.