During the summer months I eat a lot of ‘salad in a jar’ in various forms, but in the summer my lunches often end up being soups, spuds or just warmed up leftovers, but if you prefer a cold lunch then this is for you. It still uses seasonal ingredients, and is nice, fresh and crunchy, and if you do decide (which I often do) that its actually too cold and you don’t fancy salad you can warm it up!
I’ve shown this in two different versions, its exactly the same ingredients just put into a bowl or layered into a jar, it really is personal which you prefer, I think if you think you might warm it up then put it in a bowl, but if you are sure you will eat it cold then I think the jar works better as you can stab your fork in and get a bit of everything.
Anything goes, you just need to have some balance
- 1/4 Grain – in this instance I’ve used a smoked quinoa by British Quinoa, cooked according to instructions then I’ve folded through a little garlic oil from Just Oil and some fried leeks and the stems from the spinach.
- 1/4 Protein – as I wanted a smokey theme I chopped 1 smoked chicken breast from McNeills Smokehouse, which was easily enough for 2 lunch portions.
- 1/2 cooked and raw veggies, preferably as seasonal and local as you can get. Today I used grated raw carrot, Spinach quickly wilted then chopped, Broccoli blanched then cooled under a cold tap and half a bag of mixed peppery salad leaves.
It’s a matter of simply making sure everything is cooled before you pop in a bowl or jar.
Example Winter Salad Ingredients
Bowl of winter salad ingredients
