Salad in a jar: Spring pea and strawberry salad with quinoa
Eating salads for lunch is a great way to incorporate fruits and vegetables into your diet, but it can be challenging to preserve the fresh flavors and delicate textures when packing them to go. Luckily, stacking the ingredients in a jar is a simple solution for soggy salads. Stacking the salad (bottom to top):
- Layer 1: dressing
- Layer 2: heavier cooked vegetables, such as roasted beets, or hard fresh vegetables, such as peas and carrots
- Layer 3: grains
- Layer 4: fruits or delicate vegetables
- Layer 5: nuts and seeds
- Layer 6: leafy greens, sprouts, and herbs
For my salad in a jar, I chose to use produce from the farmers market paired with ingredients that I had in my pantry; but have fun experimenting with other ingredients.
Note: The below ingredients and directions will yield more than one jar’s worth of salad.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vinaigrette (see below)
- 1/2 cup fresh or blanched spring peas, shelled
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
- 1/2 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 1/4 cup maple glazed walnuts (see below)
- 1 tablespoon parsley, minced
- 1/2 cup salad greens
Vinaigrette (yields about 1/4 cup dressing)
- 1 teaspoon spring onion, minced kosher salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon of sherry vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
Maple glazed walnuts (yields 1/2 cup of maple glazed walnuts)
- 1/2 cup of walnuts
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- Pinch of kosher salt
Directions
Fill jar with salad ingredients in the order listed. When you’re ready for lunch, shake all contents in the jar and serve on a plate or in a bowl.
Vinaigrette
- Add minced onions to small mixing bowl with a pinch of salt.
- Macerate onions in sherry for about 2 minutes.
- Then add Dijon mustard, maple syrup, and olive oil. S
- Stir to emulsify.
Maple glazed walnuts
- Toss walnuts in a small mixing bowl with maple syrup.
- Bring pan to medium-low heat.
- Add maple covered walnuts and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes until maple syrup sticks to walnuts.
Nutrition information (per serving)
- Calories: 489
- Total fat: 32 g
- Saturated fat: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
- Sodium: 180 mg
- Total carbohydrate: 42 g
- Dietary fiber: 9 g
- Total sugars: 11 g
- Protein: 13 g