INTRODUCTION

In a world where many of us find ourselves eating meals on the go or at our desks, there seem to be two dismal scenarios. A packed salad that ends up soggy, brown, and limp leafed (or worse, spilled all over your bag). Or an overpriced, mediocre purchased salad that leaves you thinking that you could have done it better (and cheaper) yourself.

Enter the humble jar

Who would have thought that storing salads in a jar could make lunch on the go so much fresher, easier, and cheaper? Tossing a jar of salad in your bag will no longer be like playing a game of lunchtime roulette. Jars keep salad ingredients fresher for longer and make salads more portable, more convenient, and leak-proof. And they are built-in portion control.

Far from the prawn cocktail of my youth, these salads range from the slight to the substantial. The big-jar recipes are packed with whole grains, proteins, and hearty vegetables to keep you out of the snack drawer until dinner. The small-jar recipes are full of flavor with a sprinkling of lighter grains—perfect for less-hungry days or as side dishes.

All of the salad recipes are nutritionally sound, incorporating lots of fresh vegetables, heart-healthy fats, and whole grains so that eating salad feels like a meal rather than a starter course.

What are you waiting for? Happy salad jarring!

Equipment

Very little equipment is needed to assemble salad in jars, but here are a few useful items that will speed up your prep time and make your salad-in-jars experience the best it can be.

•Wide-mouthed jars These will make assembling and eating much easier.

•Salad spinner Use to get salad greens clean and dry.

•Y peeler Use for shaving long ribbons of vegetables.

•Mandoline or handheld slicer Use for extra-thin slicing or julienning.

•Long-handled rubber spatula Use for getting every last drop of dressing.

Prep times

Some of the recipes call for precooked grains; the cooking guide will direct you. Leftover cooked grains can be frozen in zip-top bags, making it simple to pull out what you need, when you need it.