Keeping Salad fresh

Holyjebus

Hi guys,

I've been making up a big bowl of salad on Sunday night to take each day with me to work but by Wednesday it's an un-appetising wilted mess!
Any tips on how to keep it fresher, I don't have time to do it fresh each morning as I'm trying to get myself and two toddlers out the door.
I've been putting in mixed leaves, peppers, cucumber and scallion.
Thanks:)

doctorwhogirl

Do you have it all in one big bowl?

I do all my salads for the week on a Sunday. I lay out 5 lunchboxes, throw the salad leaves, cucumber, whole cherry tomatoes, sweetcorn and onion into them and pop the lids on. I keep them in the fridge then and I've had no problem with freshness. I just throw in whatever topping I'm having with it the night before like cottage cheese/chicken/prawns/tuna etc...

boogle

Obviously don't put any dressing near the salad until you're ready to eat it. Another tip: if you put your salad stuff into a lunchbox as DWG said, get a square of kitchen towel. Dampen it and lay it in the lunchbox on top of the contents. Put on the lid and voila, crunchy salad.

Holyjebus

Thanks for the replies guys, yes I've been putting it all in one large bowl with no dressing and a kitchen towel on top with clingfilm over it.
Will give the lunch boxes a try!

lovelystuff

Anytime I try to bulk make salads for the week I find the leaves start to go brown towards the end of the week but ill try the kitchen roll idea. Does anyone have any other suggestions for bulk making lunches on the weekend? I don't have a microwave in work which really limits my options!

HeidiHeidi

I make "bakes" - basically crustless quiches, as I try to avoid carbs ie pastry, but you could make them with pastry if you want.

Cook/brown whatever filling/topping you like, into a shallow dish, beat up a few eggs with milk/cream (enough to barely cover the filling stuff), top with grated cheese, and cook at 180 until still a bit wobbly (it continues cooking when it comes out of the oven). These can be frozen in individual portions, and are lovely cold so no need for microwave.

My favourite at the moment is leeks with goat's cheese, or hot smoked salmon with feta cheese, but you could do bacon/onion, veggies - whatever you like!

The only think I can't seem to achieve is the light, fluffy sort of texture - mine always come out looking lovely but settle into quite a dense texture when it cools. Still tastes grand, but if anyone has tips for it staying light, please let me know!

Sorry if that's sidetracked the thread slightly - back on topic, thanks for the salad-preserving tips - very useful indeed!!!

lovelystuff

They sound amazing ill definitely have to try that thank you! Thinking of making soups then bringing in in a flask too, its just a pain to not have a microwave!

HeidiHeidi

lovelystuff wrote: »

They sound amazing ill definitely have to try that thank you! Thinking of making soups then bringing in in a flask too, its just a pain to not have a microwave!

Depending on your workplace, obviously, would you consider buying yourself a microwave? You'd get a cheap'n'cheerful one in Power City/DID for about 70 quid these days. Obviously if you're a street sweeper or on-the-road salesman, that wouldn't work (unless you could get one with a cigarette-lighter plug ) but if there's somewhere you could stick it in a corner, might be worth considering?

lovelystuff

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Depending on your workplace, obviously, would you consider buying yourself a microwave? You'd get a cheap'n'cheerful one in Power City/DID for about 70 quid these days. Obviously if you're a street sweeper or on-the-road salesman, that wouldn't work (unless you could get one with a cigarette-lighter plug ) but if there's somewhere you could stick it in a corner, might be worth considering?

I work in the health service between a few locations so more often than not I'm eating in my car or between appointments...thanks though :-)