Jarred Greek Salad To-Go

While visiting my family, my mom gave me a great magazine she happened to not want anymore. It was a seasonal healthy recipe magazine by Better Homes and Gardens and let me tell you– I dogeared nearly all the pages.

Well, inside was a two page spread diagramming how to make a mason jar salad. It seemed so cool to me, though I definitely wasn’t down for all the suggestions. Pasta and dried fruit and nuts and protein? Sounded like over kill to me. But it was a great concept nonetheless.

So I tried my very own! Basically you layer it with the wettest ingredients on the bottom (ie. dressing first then the damp, chopped veggies) and then layer it with dry ingredients in the middle (in this case, walnuts and chickpeas). This way, there’s a barrier keeping the greens from wilting (if you hadn’t noticed already, I’m a huge fan of spinach).

Since Feta is the most perfect cheese ever, I decided to go for a Greek Salad.

At first I was worried about how the salad would come out of the jar. But with some coaxing with a fork, it easily plopped onto my plate looking this beautiful:

Greek Salad Mason Jar

Yield: 1 serving

1-2 tbs Greek Salad Dressing*
1 oz Feta Cheese
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
8 cherry tomatoes halved
1/4-1/2 cups canned chickpeas drained (I tried 1/2 but it was too much for me)
2 tbs chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups spinach

1. In order listed, layer ingredients in a clean pint mason jar. Store in refrigerator for up to one day.

*I used my homemade Greek dressing, but you can use store bought. If you do use homemade, please note that refrigerated fresh dressings can sometimes congeal in the fridge. For this reason, if using homemade dressing, take your jar out of the fridge 30 minutes before lunch or run the bottom under warm water. I soaked mine in a bowl of warm water for 1-2 minutes.