Several years ago I got into the habit of making salads ahead of time and vacuum sealing them in quart jars. There were several blog posts about it but here’s one that gives you the general idea of what I do. Any ingredients can be added. If you haven’t tried this method, I think you’ll be surprised at what a time saver this is. It takes hardly any more time to wash the lettuce and tomatoes and slice the cucumber and assemble all the ingredients to make half a dozen or more salads than it does to make one. When I don’t have salads made up ahead of time, it’s rare that we have salad. It seems like so much trouble to get all the ingredients out, wash, and prepare them when I’m already in the middle or near the end of cooking. It is so easy to open a jar, dump the ingredients into a bowl and fluff the lettuce up a bit.
I started making these salads yesterday at 12:33 p.m.
Start Time
Nothing was washed or sliced but all the ingredients were out and the jars were ready.
Ingredients for Salad
The salad ingredients were washed. The cucumber was sliced, the lettuce was torn.
Salad Ingredients
I’ll explain the strawberries later. If I were making this and wasn’t doing a blog post, I’d put everything directly in the jars and not mess up the bowls.
Salad Ingredients
Some folks recommend putting the heavy stuff in the bottom of the jars. By heavy stuff, I mean cucumbers, tomatoes, olives . . and then put the lettuce on top but I do it both ways and have never had any problems.
Salad Ingredients
Once the jars are filled, vacuum seal them either using a regular counter top Food Saver or a hand held unit.
Salads
I’ve kept these salads at least two weeks and they are completely fresh when I open then.
Salads
About the strawberries . . if we’re using a vinaigrette type dressing, we like to add fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced strawberries and some kind of glazed nuts – pecans or almonds usually. If we’re using a creamy dressing, we add cheddar or parmesan cheese squares and croutons. I washed the strawberries, sealed them and will slice up a couple when we need them in a salad.
I completed the process at 12:56 p.m.
Finished
It took 23 minutes and that includes washing everything, sealing the jars and taking Speck out once! Not bad for 7 days worth of salad. All the tomatoes were used so there are none to go bad. The whole can of olives was used so none of those to store. The whole cucumber was used.
I keep extra lettuce always so if we ended up having a guest for dinner, there’s enough tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and cucumber in the jars that I could simply dump it all into a bowl, add more lettuce, toss and we’d have plenty to make three salads.
I find this way of making and saving salads to be so efficient and we eat a whole lot more salads by having them made and in the fridge.
Donna Williams says
That’s kind of amazing. Had not seen an idea like this and I love it. Will have to ponder on this, and study on a sealer thingy.
suzanne says
Judy, I want to order the hand held dealer and the jar attachment from Amazon. Is that all I need for those two things to work. I tried to see if it came with a hose, or if I needed a hose and could not tell via the item description. I think you have talked about that before, but I could not find the post. Thanks for any help. I want to start using this system for salads.
Diana in RR, TX says
Not Judy, but if you get the jar attachment and the hand held sealer you do not need the hose. Also if you have a Bed,Bath and Beyond and get their coupons they sometimes have them in stock.
suzanne says
Thank you Diana, I will try my local BBB. I appreciate you answering my question! Hopefully I will find one today!
Diana in RR, TX says
Have been making those for Dad every other week-make sure he eats salad. He likes salads but for one person the stuff goes bad before being used. I have also started putting slaw ingredients into the jars and vacuuming sealing it. Get the big bags of precut cabbage, divide that up, make my dressing and keep that in a separate container in the fridge. Works out great.
JudyL says
Great idea about the slaw.
Darling Jill says
I tried this once and it made salads very easy. I’m wondering if the lids can be re-used for this purpose or if you need new lids each time. I know that the lids can’t be re-used when canning so I just wanted to check… 🙂
Gardenpat says
Yes, DarlingJill- you can re-use these lids for this vacuum type of packaging for salads. Just not for regular water bath or pressure canning!
Diana in SC says
All this canning, etc. reminds me of my Grandma..she was always putting food up…never wasted any food. Sure was good eating when it was put out 🙂 Sure do miss her.
CindyM says
Can you put meats or cheese in the bottom of the jar? I’ve never used the vacuum sealer on jars.
Susan says
Do you keep the jars in the fridge or on a shelf?
Mary C in WA says
I use my TUPPERWARE. My Sister-in-law sold it for a long time and taught me the trick of tearing the lettuce, adding carrots or celery to it and placing a paper towel on top, putting the lid on, burping it, then inverting it in the Fridge. It keeps for about two weeks that way too. I just add the Tomatoes, olives, meat, cucumbers and cheese when I want a salad.
JudyL says
This will confirm for you that I’m crazy but the reason I don’t do that is because I terribly dislike having big containers in the fridge unless they’re full. Even with milk, when the carton gets half gone, I pour it into a quart Mason jar and when there’s more gone, I pour it into a pint jar. I like the salads in jars because when a jar is empty, it’s out of there! Whatever works for you though . . that’s what counts.
Diana in SC says
My Mom does that all the time….calls it downsizing.
Dar in MO says
Judy, this salad tip and the steel cut oatmeal trick of making ahead and freezing have been two of my most favorite things I’ve learned from you. I use both of them ALL the Time!!! You are such a wealth of information and efficient ideas. Thank you so much.
JudyL says
Isn’t it fantastic having that oatmeal ready to heat and eat? Thanks!
Kay L Ford-Sollimo says
Amazon is going to sell a bunch of Food Saver products real soon. My Scots blood is loving this whole idea. Many thanks.
JudyL says
Amazon does sell FoodSaver already. A reader posted an Amazon link a while back with bags that they like better than the FoodSaver brand.
Kay L Ford-Sollimo says
I’m partial to the glass jars rather than the bags. Who knows, that might change.