If your mission is to save money and eat better by packing healthier home lunches, the Mason jar is ready to be your friend.
The container that revolutionized home canning more than 150 years ago is undergoing a revival as a receptacle for grab-and-go meals. A quick search of amazon.com turns up more than 50 cookbooks on Mason jar meal-making, all released since 2013. Hundreds of recipes are available online.
"It’s amazing the uses people are coming up with for them," says Julia Mirabella, who wrote one of those books, "Mason Jar Salads" ($16.95, Ulysses Press, 2014).
HOW TO MAKE A MASON JAR SALAD
Fill several jars at once, seal tightly and refrigerate. Grab-and-go for a filling salad every day. Pour into a bowl to eat.
Start With Dressing
About 2-3 tablespoons is a good amount, but use more if you’re going to have tofu in your salad. Tofu gives up water, which will dilute your dressing. To make your own easy dressing, combine 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice with 1-1/2 tablespoons oil in a small jar and shake. Add herbs and spices as you see fit.
The Wet Layer
For items that won’t get soggy, such as hard vegetables like carrots, or items that would benefit from marinating (beans, firm tofu, firm pastas, potatoes, even meats). Diced onions also do well immersed in dressing. They’ll stay crisp and the dressing will mellow their sharp flavor.
Moisture Barrier
Anything goes here, from fresh sliced veggies or fruits to canned corn, edamame, pickles and proteins. Proteins can be meats, cheeses or hard-boiled eggs. Noodles are good here, too, if you don’t want them to touch your dressing. The idea is to keep it colorful and varied from day to day. Pack firmly.
Fresh Greens
Tightly packed greens go here, separated from the dressing so they won’t get soggy. Use any type of lettuce, cabbage, spinach, watercress or arugula, or get a bag of premixed greens. Some people like their cheese and proteins at the top, added the day they plan to eat the salad. Crunchy items such as nuts go in last.
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The clear glass jars actually went through a previous rebirth in the last millenium, when people turned them into gifts by stacking dry ingredients within them in pretty layers. The giftee turned the contents into soup, cake or cookies. The current trend, though, is to layer fresh ingredients for ready-to-eat meals.
The Mason jar is well suited to this task: airtight and spillproof; compatible with ovens, microwaves and dishwashers; cheaper than most plastic containers. I got a case of a dozen quart jars at Walmart for about $12. And for those afraid that plastic containers will leach chemicals into their food? Mason would never do that to you.
What a stud.
Mirabella is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and a food blogger (myfoodandotherstuff.com) who came across the Mason jar concept online in 2013. She’d been trying to do a better job with her own home lunches but was finding it cumbersome to pack fresh salads daily. The Mason jar was a revelation that launched a personal revolution. She could carry dressing and vegetables in one container and the greens wouldn’t get soggy. She could pack several jars at once for use through the week, and because of the airtight seal everything stayed fresh. "I realized it’s easy, and I’m eating a lot more greens," Mirabella said. "It’s a shortcut that really works."
Of course, you could carry just about any meal in a Mason jar, but my fascination is with Mirabella’s specialty of salads.
The idea is to work in layers: Dressing (store-bought or homemade) goes on the bottom, followed by items that are either impervious to sogginess (carrots, cherry tomatoes) or those that would benefit from a little marinating (beans, chicken breast, firm tofu). Then come a couple of layers of other add-ins — sliced veggies, diced fruit, marinated artichoke hearts, beets, pickles, pasta, hard-boiled eggs, canned corn, meat, cheese … pack with variety. If you get bored, you’ll abandon the concept. The greens go in at the top, separated from the dressing by the barrier you’ve built in between. Sprinkle on crunchy things like nuts or bacon bits last. Seal tight.
Mirabella’s favorites are kale with barley and a Greek salad with chickpeas. Her best discovery: Blueberries pack well and add great dimension.
At work, dump it all in a bowl and toss. You could conceivably eat out of the jar, but if you did a good job of packing tight, that could be tricky. If this becomes a habit, you could just keep the bowl at your desk.
Any tall plastic or glass container with a wide mouth would work for trying this out, but if you’re going to get serious, you’ll find Mason jars work best for their standard size, their ideal shape for packing tight and that airtight seal that prevents leaking in your lunch bag. The glass also shows off your colorful, cheery layers; after all, they say we eat first with our eyes.
I packed eight Mason jar salads over the weekend, opening them a few days later in order to test various delicate items for freshness. My findings:
» The greens held up really well in all cases. So did sliced mushrooms.
» Avocado, cubed and sprinkled with lemon juice, did fairly well but shouldn’t be packed more than two days in advance or it loses color and texture.
» Sturdy pasta, such as fusilli, survived being packed right in the dressing without getting mushy, but more delicate types are better in an upper layer.
» Tofu is great. Use a good amount of undiluted tsuyu — the Japanese soup base used to make somen — at the bottom. Tofu gives up water as it sits, which turns the tsuyu into a nice dressing.
» Crunchy things are best added the day you plan to eat the salad.
Mirabella says her Mason jars have become a way of life. She uses them for drinking glasses and pencil cups. "My fiance brings me flowers in them." Since her book came out, she’s come across other new ideas, the most intriguing being baking in the jars.
But that’s a project for next time. Check back with me in a couple of weeks.
SOUTHWESTERN SALAD
Adapted from “Mason Jar Salads,” by Julia Mirabella
» 1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
» 1/2 cup diced tomato
» 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
» 1/4 cup diced yellow bell pepper
» 1/2 cup diced avocado
» 1/2 cup corn kernels
» 2 cups mixed salad greens
» 2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese
Lime Vinaigrette:
» 1 tablespoon lime juice
» 1/2 tablespoon chopped cilantro
» Salt and pepper, to taste
» Dash hot sauce
» 1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil
To make vinaigrette: Whisk together lime juice, cilantro, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Slowly whisk in oil until mixture thickens. Pour into a 1-quart Mason jar. Layer salad ingredients in the order listed.
Combine salad ingredients in bowl; drizzle with dressing and toss to coat. Serves 1.
Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (not including salt to taste): 550 calories, 37 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 700 mg sodium, 52 g carbohydrate, 18 g fiber, 12 g sugar, 15 g protein
Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S. Write "By Request," Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813. Or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com.
