Salad in a Jar
This is a practical and easy way to prepare your lunch for a couple of days in advance. You can have your dressing at the bottom of your jar, have it in a separate container or insert parchment paper on top and fill it in there. Make sure your jar is properly sealed.
This is one of many possible ways to prepare your jar:
Bottom layer – Salad dressing - Juice of ½ lemon, 1 tbsp honey, t tbsp. olive oil, pinch salt, pinch cumin, pinch chiliflakes or cayenne pepper (enough for 2 jars) or dressing of your choice
Second layer – robust vegetables like radish, carrot, red onion, celery, – I used finely cubed mouli radish – which benefit from marinating in the dressing
Third layer – Fairly firm vegetables which don’t mind weight of a few more layers on top. I used grated carrots – you could also use sweet corn, courgettes, broccoli, peas
Fourth layer – I used cooked red quinoa, but it could be rice, millet or pasta.
Fifth layer – Any type of beans or lentils. I used spiced roasted chickpeas (see note below).
Sixth layer – Chopped green leaves (spinach, chard, herbs, salad leaves) topped with some sunflower seeds or any seed of your choice and/or edible flowers.
It is best to get all the ingredients ready, before packing your jar:
1. Cook your pasta, quinoa, millet or rice
2. Wash, peel, chop your vegetables
3. Prepare your dressing
4. Pack the jar as planned
5. Keep in the fridge until used
6. The jar the way I prepared it should keep in the fridge for 4 days
Note Additional extras for vegetarians could be eggs, feta cheese or tempeh.
Tip Mix your chickpeas with a little olive oil, paprika and cayenne, put on a baking tray and roast in the oven at 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 for 25 minutes.
What jars to use
Glass jars are aesthetic and practical. A good preserving jar with either screw cap or clip top is best. The most important thing is a tight seal. On picnics it’s easiest to eat out of the jar. At work I prefer to tip everything into a big bowl, mix well and enjoy the combined flavours.