Who has time to make a fancy gourmet salad every day for lunch? Nope, neither do I. This is why I LOVE mason jar salads. I am on-the-go all day, but it is crazy important to me that I take care of my body and eat as healthy as I can. Mason jar salads easy to make, convenient to carry, and you can make a million delicious varieties. This week, I opted for a vegan-style Greek salad.
Why mason jar?
Have you ever prepped a salad ahead of time and by the time you eat it, everything is soggy and gross? Yuck, not my favorite. The cool thing about mason jars, and similarly shaped containers, is that you can layer the ingredients in a way that keeps the moist stuff on the bottom and the dry stuff up top. This mean, you don’t need to carry a second container for the dressing. It sits on the bottom.
This wonderful graphic from Well Vegan gives a great example to all of the possibilities:
I also love that it’s in a jar because I get the joy of shaking up my salad before I eat it. If it is not packed too tightly, it perfectly tosses everything in the dressing and evenly distributes the ingredients.
For convenience, you could eat it out of the jar, but I find it to be a bit of a pain. I shake it up and toss the salad into a bowl when I am ready to eat. But you do you 🙂
This week’s salad is super simple, but still full of flavor. Plus, the quinoa gives some added protein and fills me up perfectly. Enjoy!
Mason Jar Greek Salad
This is one of those ingredients where I don’t use exact measurements, because it really depends on preference and the size of the jars. I give an estimate of the ingredients below, which made about three large mason jars of salad.
Ingredients
- Olive oil and balsalmic vinegar
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 cucumber, diced
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 15-20 cherry tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup chopped olives
- 1/2 head of romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- Non-vegan options: feta or goat cheese, diced chicken
Directions
Layers:
- First, add the olive oil, balsalmic vinegar, salt and pepper to the bottom of each jar. The amount is really up to you, depending on how much dressing you appreciate on your salads. Then, add some quinoa.
- Add the veggies in this order: olives, tomatoes, cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce.
- Put a lid on it and store for the week. Yes, it is that easy 🙂
I hope you enjoy some easier meals, like mason jar salads, to make healthy eating even easier. It does not need to be complicated or time consuming. Start with simple ingredients and easy recipes.
What is your favorite style of mason jar salads? Or your go-to meal prep recipe? I would love to know about it in the comments below!
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