Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to eat healthy foods when they’re eye-appealing? Food presentation goes a long way. For example, have you ever seen a mason jar salad? There’s something about all of those colorful layers of fresh foods that makes you want to shake it up and gobble it down. Mason jar meals are part art and part interactive.
To make your own mason jar salads, you’ll want to keep these tips in mind. The layering is important. You’ll want to put the food layers in the jar backwards to how you would prepare a salad. For example, the dressing goes in the jar first. This is in order to keep the foods from getting soggy. Here’s the food order when making a mason jar salad: dressing, chunky proteins or grains (such as grilled chicken or rice), garnishes (such as shredded cheese, nuts, beans, etc.), the greens. When you’re ready to eat, everything gets dumped into the bowl in perfect order: greens, garnishes, protein, and dressing. See how that works?
Keep complementary flavors and textures at the forefront of your mind when preparing a mason jar salad, like salty and sweet, chewy and crunchy. Here are some mason jar combo suggestions:
- Dressing of your choice, grilled chicken, kidney beans, sunflowers seeds, dried cranberries, baby spinach.
- Dressing of your choice, pork, quinoa, sliced almonds, dried papaya, baby romaine.
- Dressing of your choice, turkey, walnuts, celery, radish, apple, mixed greens.
- Peanut dressing, soba noodles, red bell pepper, edamame, carrots, green onions, crunchy rice noodles.
- Dressing of your choice, grilled chicken, chickpeas, onions, radishes, cheese, mixed greens.
There are so many fun and healthy options when it comes to mason jar salads. Follow the order and see what new culinary creations you can come up with.