Salads in a Jar by Anna Helm Baxter
Published by Hachette Australia on December 22nd 2016
Genres: Cooking, Courses & Dishes, General, Health & Healing, Specific Ingredients, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Pages: 160
Goodreads
Salads in a jar are the perfect on-the-go lunch that is healthy and delicious! This fully illustrated cookbook is the essential guide to quick and beautiful healthy lunches that will make all your coworkers jealous. Easy to use, this guide details the perfect combinations to make an abundance of delicious and nutritious salads.
The new year is coming and all of us are cleaning out our pantry. We are eating all the bad and starting to stock all the good so we can keep our New Year’s Resolutions……. isn’t that right? Well, I don’t know about any of you, but this scenario is exactly what I’ll be doing this year. I’ve gotten to an all-time high on the scale, and I have decided enough is enough. Before the scale starts telling me “one at a time, please”, I’ve got to do something……
….. and that’s where this book comes in at a perfect time! I’ve seen things on pinterest in the past about salads in a jar, but none of them looked like they were any different than the salads I was putting in my bowls and plates, which translated to boring/ho-hum to me. This book, Salad in a Jar: 68 Recipes for Salads and Dressings by Anna Helm Baxter has changed the way I’m looking at eating healthier in the new year.
I’ve been in a lunchtime rut at work for a good six months. Either I eat the same thing every day, five days a week, week after week, or I skip lunch and eat so much later in the day that I’m sick. I’m going to give this book a shot – the recipes seem pretty amazing – and I’m feeling confident that the lunchtime rut at work is going to be a thing of the past – last year’s news.
As far as equipment goes, very little is needed to assemble salad in jars. Salad in a Jar lists a few useful items to speed up the prep time to make the salad-in-jars experience the best it can be:
♦ Wide-mouthed jars These will make assembling and eating much easier.
♦ Salad spinner Use to get salad greens clean and dry.
♦ Y peeler Use for shaving long ribbons of vegetables.
♦ Mandoline or handheld slicer Use for extra-thin slicing or julienning.
♦ Long-handled rubber spatula Use for getting every last drop of dressing.
As far as prep times go, some of the recipes call for precooked grains. There is a cooking guide on page 10 of Salad in a Jar to direct you, and the leftover cooked grains can be frozen in zip-top bags, so that when they are called for, you can simply pull out what you need when you need it.
In Salad in a Jar, each recipe has a photo of the ingredients along with a simple list and the time needed to gather the ingredients. The next page has a photo of the compiled salad in a jar with the order in which to place the ingredients. I found that most of the recipes require common grocery items that are easily found. I did see that a couple of the recipes did require deli or prepared items so the prep time would be a little longer than others. There is a range of flavors and the dressings are used for multiple salads.
I felt that overall, Salad in a Jar is a strong introduction to making Mason jar salads. I liked the concept so much, that after I reviewed the complimentary digital copy that I received from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and unbiased opinion, I immediately went to Amazon and bought a “hard” copy so I could keep it in the kitchen and use it while preparing the salads instead of trying to flip through my kindle with goopy hands.
About the Author: ANNA HELM BAXTER is a food writer, recipe developer, and food stylist. She started her career working for Jamie Oliver before moving to New York where she has worked across almost every food media outlet including many major magazine publications and network TV shows. Anna lives, cooks, and writes in Brooklyn with her husband and two young children. She likes insanely spicy food, making elaborate birthday cakes, and saving room for dessert.
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