I'm tired of putting out a great big salad bowl for dinners, having everyone get their salads and then seeing that all the goodies in the salad have fallen to the bottom of the bowl and very little actually made it into people's salads.  A lot of those goodies sometimes are expensive, too - pine nuts or pancetta.  Sometimes the diced veggies like bell pepper will fall to the bottom.  Drives me crazy. Solution?  Salad in jars!

Salad in jars is not a new idea, but it solves my salad serving problem in a great way. I take individual pint sized, wide mouth canning jars and layer the individual salads.  Dressing and seasoning goes on the bottom, more sturdier components like chopped bell pepper or carrots go in next, and then the greens go on top. Everyone gets a jar, turns it over into their serving bowl and a perfect salad comes out with the perfect amount of salad ingredients.  Use a nice large bowl and toss the salad lightly.  

the perfect salad serving

There are a lot of advantages to using these jars for individual salads:

• You can make up a few jarred salads at the beginning of the week and have them in your fridge all week.
• If you have jarred salads in your fridge, you are more likely to grab one of those for lunch or dinner than junk food
• The jars are glass for people who want to avoid eating out of plastic
• They are great for picnics or cookouts
• They keep your greens very fresh
• If you pack a lunch for work, these are easy to grab in the morning.

my favorite - vinaigrette, cannellini beans, shaved parm, red onion, arugula