These Mix & Match Mason Jar Salad Recipes make healthy lunches easy – they're great for meal prep and will keep your salad fresh for days!
Mason Jar Salad Recipes
Welcome to one of my fave ever meal prep posts! Today we'll learn how to build the ultimate mason jar salad – they are perfect as grab and go lunches (check out more meal prep lunch ideas here) and this post will detail how to overlap different ingredients so you can enjoy something different every day!
One of my biggest pain points when it comes to meal prep is that I don’t like to eat the same thing every day. You don’t have to deal with meal prep fatigue if you’re strategic about the ingredients you use and opt for different dressings and combos. The variety among these five mason jar salads will have you enjoying lunch again!
How to make a mason jar salad
- Assemble your ingredients.
- Spoon in the dressing on the bottom.
- Add in the grains and/or protein.
- Layer in everything else.
- Finish it off with the leafy greens.
- Seal and store in the fridge!
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How to layer a mason jar salad
The easiest way to prevent your salad in a jar from getting soggy is to layer the more delicate ingredients such as greens and lettuce away from the dressing. In fact, that is the main purpose of mason jar salads! When you use regular containers for salads and try to take them for lunch, you end up with soggy lettuce because all the ingredients are mixed together.
Mason jars are also great for salad and ensuring crisp lettuce because you don't need to pack an extra container for the dressing. As long as the veggies are layered on top and the proteins/dressing are on the bottom, you won't have a problem with soggy salad.
Frequently Asked Questions
If stored properly, most mason jar salad recipes can last 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator. Keep in mind that some ingredients stay fresher in the refrigerator longer than others. If you’re doing meal planning and want to prepare a variety of salads for an entire week, plan it so that you consume the salads with ingredients that stay fresh for longer later in the week.
Some people eat their mason jar salads straight from the jar. A few minutes before eating, tip the jar upside down, give the jar a few good shakes and then take off the lid and enjoy! If you’ve packed your salad nice and tight, then this might not work, in which case you can dump everything into a bowl and dig in.
There are so many benefits when it comes to making salad in a jar. They’re great for weekly meal prep, since you can make a variety of options ahead of time to enjoy throughout the week – which in turn will help you save money since you won’t have to eat out for lunch or dinner! It also makes it a lot easier to eat healthier when you have mason jar salads packed and ready to go in the fridge. They offer plenty of variety and you don’t have to buy as many ingredients.
In the US and Canada, the standard mason jar opening comes in two sizes: regular (2 and 3/8 inches wide) and wide mouth (3 inches wide). The wide mouth jar is generally a better choice for mason jar salads because it’s much easier to get ingredients in and out of the wider opening. Mason jars come in a variety of sizes, but the ones most commonly used for salad recipes are the pint (16 oz) and quart (32oz) size jars. I've used the 16 oz size mason jars for the recipes pictured.
The Best Mason Jar Salad Recipes
I rounded up some of my favourite salad in a jar recipes! You can also mix and match with different ingredients and dressings until you find something you love.
Tex Mex Salad Jars
Ranch Salad Jars
Caprese Salad Jars
Green Goddess Salad Jars
Greek Salad Jars
Storing and reheating
You can store your mason jar salad in the fridge for 4 to 5 days, which makes it a great option for meal prep. When you’re ready to enjoy, just shake up the salad and eat it right out of the jar or dump it into a bowl and eat from there.
Freezing components of this recipe
While you can’t freeze salad in a jar, you can freeze components of your salads like chicken, rice, quinoa, etc. That way, when you’re ready to make your salads, your ingredients will be ready to go. Just stick them in the fridge the night before you need to use them so they can defrost.
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More mason jar salad recipes
Meal Prep Tools
- These are the mason jars I used in this recipe.
- You can get larger 32oz mason jars too!
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you would rather layer these salads in a different container.
- I like this salad dressing shaker to make homemade dressings easier.
- These colourful mason jar lids are so fun and perfect if you lose your lids.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- **Get my full list of tools here**
5 Mix & Match Mason Jar Salad Recipes {Healthy Lunches}
Ingredients
Make ahead ingredients
- 1-2 chicken breasts (depends on how many jars you're making – 1 breast per two jars is standard)
- 1 cup quinoa (dry)
Tex Mex salad jars
- chicken
- cherry tomatoes, sliced
- red onion, diced
- grated cheddar cheese
- lettuce, chopped
Tex Mex dressing
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
Greek salad jars
- chickpeas
- cucumber
- cherry tomatoes, sliced
- red onion, diced
- baby spinach
Greek dressing
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
Caprese salad jars
- quinoa
- cherry tomatoes, sliced
- bocconcini cheese
- red onion, diced
- baby spinach
Balsamic dressing
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
Ranch salad jars
- chicken
- cucumber
- cherry tomatoes, sliced
- grated cheddar cheese
- lettuce, chopped
Ranch dressing
- 1-2 tbsp bottled ranch dressing
Green goddess salad jars
- chickpeas
- quinoa
- cucumber
- edamame
- spinach
Green goddess dressing
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp packed cilantro or parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
Instructions
- Cook make-ahead ingredients: Bake chicken breasts with a little bit of olive oil, salt & pepper in a 400 F for 20 min. When cooled, dice up into 1-inch pieces. Meanwhile, make quinoa in a rice cooker – combine 1 cup quinoa with 2 cups water and cook until all liquid is absorbed.
- Mix together dressing of choice – you can use the homemade versions listed above or store-bought versions to save time. Each salad jar should require only 1-2 tbsp of dressing.
- Add dressing of choice to the bottom of a 16-oz mason jar. Layer in ingredients of choice in order of what is listed. For instance, for the Mexican jars, add in chicken, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cheese and lettuce to the jar in that order.
- Jars will keep in fridge up to 4 or 5 days. For easy meal prep, cook chicken and quinoa ahead of time up to 24 hours in advance so all you have to do is assemble.
- Serve by shaking mason jar so dressing gets distributed, then dump in a large bowl to eat. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Sunny says
I use pint and a half jars. Nice wide mouths, no curves and just enough food for a half hour lunch.
Rachel O'Neill says
Thank you so much for posting this! I love all the recipes and my daughter thinks they’re good too. She takes them to school for lunch.
Gweneth says
just a quick question, your recipe says use a 8-oz jar … seems like it should be bigger?
Taylor Stinson says
My apologies – they are 16oz jars. I did link to the correct jars in the tools section of this post 🙂
Lewis says
Pampered chef has a jar especially designed for jar salads. There is a place on the top of the jar where you can put your salad dressing.
Kenneth Gurvin says
Can I use glass jars other than Mason Jars. I save my glass spaghetti sauce, pickle, and sour kraut jars.
Would they work?
Thank you Ken
Taylor Stinson says
Yes for sure Ken! As long as they are washed and clean they will work!
Cynthia Berry says
I found this bold looking up salad jar recipes. I am looking for healthy alternatives for lunch to help with my fitness/weight loss goals. You did good with this post! It’s easy to follow, love it!
Taylor Stinson says
Thank you so much Cynthia 🙂
Megan says
Hi! I happened upon this blog when I was preparing for one of my salad in a jar parties. We had about 10 people and made the salads as a community and used your ideas. Thanks so much for posting them! We had so much fun!
Taylor Stinson says
That makes me so happy to hear Megan, that’s awesome!!! I’m so glad you enjoyed the ideas 🙂
Trish says
How does your salad party work ? Like a potluck ?