Summer Salad Jars

Catherine Lawson

Long gone are the days when a salad constituted some iceberg lettuce, a few cucumber slices and a tomato. I remember the days when anything beyond that, like a spoonful of tinned potato salad on the side, meant we were celebrating something. Nowadays the sky’s the limit when it comes to salads, thanks to an ever-increasing range of fresh produce and a renewed focus on the power of plants. There are so many ways to prepare and serve all that goodness, salad jars being one of them: they’re a fun, delicious way to get the whole family eating more of the good stuff this summer.

There are a couple of ways to do salad jars. Personally, I like to prep the jars with the base salad, in other words all the fresh veggies I want to include, before I add on my protein and dressing. With this method, you keep the base salads all jarred up in the fridge until you’re ready to serve them, loading on the toppings at the last minute before you delve right in with a fork. The other way to do it is to prepare them, toppings and all, in a slightly taller jar which gives you room to shake them all about at the last minute, mixing up the contents before you then empty them into a bowl (or indeed eat them straight from the jar as with the first option). Either way, the aim is to layer up as many fresh veggies in as many colours as possible, adding your protein of choice and a delicious dressing to finish them off.

Note: getting kids to focus on the colours is a good way to get them involved in choosing and preparing their own.

There are of course a multitude of additional options to allow you to make a salad jar packed with all of your favourite things, and part of the joy of eating this way comes from finding out what combinations (or globally inspired themes) you like best. As always, the key is to think about colours, flavours, textures and fragrances, making sure you have a good range of each so that your food appeals to all the senses. And with that range of fresh produce comes a nutritionally powerful profile – salad jars are a simple way to make sure you are eating as many plant-based vitamins and minerals as possible to support your health and wellbeing.

Whether you’re packing them in a cool box for a picnic, taking them to work for a healthy lunch, or relaxing in your garden on a hot summer’s day, they should be fun to make and delicious to eat. Enjoy!