So it’s about time that I acknowledged the mason jar/kilner jar salad phenomena that’s been captivating the health foodie blogosphere for quite some time now. It’s an ingenious idea (credit to whoever came up with this), allowing you to securely transport your lunch to work without the risk of it ending up a soggy mess come lunchtime. The secret is in the layering – more on that below.
Whilst there are plenty of beautiful, colourful creations clogging up my Instagram feed, they almost look too healthy and few look genuinely robust and substantial enough to carry you through the afternoon. I just don’t think they’d satisfy my cravings for something a bit more than just leaves (afterall, lunch is often the highlight of the working day – am I right?!). Enter this vegetarian take on a cobb salad with a “naughty” creamy dressing.
Still healthy and low cost, but crucially having protein and fat to a) keep you full all afternoon and b) taste yum. The ingredients list includes hard boiled eggs (which I’m really having a thing with at the moment, after years of finding them truly repellent), luscious avocado, juicy sunblush tomatoes, sweetcorn, cucumber, lettuce and my favourite part – the creamy blue cheese dressing *swoon*.
So, armed with my new kilner jar – I filled it to the brim and got ready to chow down for lunch. See what you think.
Ingredients (makes 4 portions):
2 ripe avocados
4 eggs
Iceberg/romaine lettuce
Small can sweetcorn
Cucumber
Small bag of cherry tomatoes
For the dressing:
0% fat greek yoghurt
Blue cheese
Lemon juice
Garlic/regular mayonnaise
Chopped handful of chives
What To Do:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 220C. Half the cherry tomatoes, place on a baking tray cut side up, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put in the oven. Immediately turn the oven off and leave the tomatoes there for a good few hours.
- 2. Put the eggs in a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain and cool with cold water, peel off the shells and slice.
- 3. Make the dressing: Use a ratio of 2:1 greek yoghurt and blue cheese and smoosh together in a bowl with a good grind of black pepper, the chives, lemon juice and dollop of mayonnaise. Taste to ensure you’re happy with it.
- 4. Chop up the avocados and cucumber into small cubes and finely chop the lettuce.
- 5.Assemble the salad: Start with a thick layer of dressing in the bottom of the jar. Then add the cucumber, then sweetcorn, eggs, tomatoes, avocado and finally the lettuce at the top. Seal and leave in the fridge until needed.
- 6.When ready to serve, simply empty the jar onto a plate and the dressing will slide down and cover the rest of the salad. Smart – no?
The Lunchbox 