I love good food. But I love it even more when it’s convenient. So in the spirit of making good food convenient, today’s video will show you one of the things I’ve been crushing on lately: Salads in jars.

They’re easy to make, can be prepped days in advance, are gorgeous to look at and allow you to create endless combinations of fresh, delicious ingredients.

I give credit to Pinterest for the genius idea, although I’m not sure where the original idea stems from. This has now become a staple of mine and I’m happy to share it with you in today’s video and hope you will give it a try.

 

 

How to cook quinoa

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium shallot, finely diced

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups low-sodium chicken, vegetable broth or water

1 large bay leaf (or 2 small)

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

 

Method

1) In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat, add one diced shallot and cook until softened.

2) Add the quinoa and stir to coat.  Add bay leaf, broth, the salt and pepper. Bring up to a boil then cover and cook over medium heat for 12 minutes.

3) Once the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is cooked through, remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes.

4) Then, fluff with a fork, remove bay leaf and enjoy.

 

 

For the salad 

Quinoa, chickpea and roasted pepper salad

This method is great if you wish to prep salads ahead of time while keeping them fresh. 

Lemon and herb dressing

 Makes 1/3 cup 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon fresh oregano (1/2 tsp if dried)

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

1. In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, salt and pepper and whisk in the olive oil until mixture thickens. Add the herbs and stir to combine.

 

The following recipe fills a 1 quart mason jar. You can adjust according to your jar size, but aim to fill at least a third with leafy greens. Also, you can easily double the recipe if you wish to prepare more than one salad. The key is keep the wet ingredients separate from the moisture-sensitive greens. If you get this right, your salad jar can keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

 

For each mason jar, combine in the following order, from bottom to top:

• 2 tablespoons lemon dressing
• 3/4 cup quinoa
• 1/3 cup chickpeas
• 1/3 cup roasted red peppers, patted dry
• 2 tablespoons olives, chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers
• Arugula or other leafy green

To serve, flip the mason jar over onto a plate, and enjoy!

 

Have you every had a salad in a jar?