Recipe: This salad in a jar will add pizzazz to workday lunches

This DIY meal-in-a-jar has enough pizzazz to greatly improve workday lunches. Limp greens and soggy veggies are often the fate of a made-ahead salad destined for the lunchbox. In Giada De Laurentiis’ cookbook, “Happy Cooking,” she provides a shaker jar strategy. Chill. Shake. Enjoy.

Recently I riffed on this theme: Instead of the romaine, I used a handful of shredded vegetables from a salad mix purchased at my local supermarket, a Taylor Farms’ Sweet Kale Chopped Mix. It included bits of kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage and radicchio. Easy.

Giada’s Shaker Jar Salad

Yield: 1 serving

INGREDIENTS

1 wide-mouth quart-size jar

1 tablespoon store-bought hummus

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup canned black-eyed peas, rinsed, drained

1/3 cup red seedless grapes, halved

1 celery stalk, chopped

3 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese

1 cup chopped radicchio or shredded green cabbage

1 cup loosely packed chopped romaine lettuce, about 2 leaves

1 tablespoon slivered almonds

DIRECTIONS

1. In small bowl, whisk hummus, juice, oil and salt. Pour dressing into bottom of a wide-mouth quart-size jar or sealable container. On top of dressing layer: peas, grapes, celery, feta, radicchio or cabbage, romaine and almonds. Seal and refrigerate for up to 6 hours.

2. When ready to eat, shake the jar to coat and mix the entire salad in the dressing.

Source: Adapted from “Happy Cooking” by Giada De Laurentiis (Pam Krauss Books, $35)

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at CathyThomasCooks.com.