French picnic salad in a jar.

Can I just gush for a moment about How. Much. I. Love. This.?

A beautiful layered salad in a jar (I used a Weck .5L Mold jar), perfect for transporting to a picnic or, less romantically, to the office. You could spin this salad-in-a-jar thing a million different ways, but I went for a riff on the classic French niçoise salad, with steamed potatoes, green beans and a mustardy vinaigrette. If you layer the dressing on the bottom and the lettuce on the top, then your salad ingredients stay nice and fresh and crisp until you’re ready to eat, at which point you simply shake the jar to distribute the dressing, and stick your fork allthewaytothebottom to get a bit of everything in one bite.

French picnic salad in a jar

per individual serving:

better-than-store-bought homemade vinaigrette
8 to 10 small cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken
handful fresh green beans, trimmed to 1-inch lengths
3 little fingerling potatoes
a few pitted black olives
3-4 leaves of butter lettuce, cut into thin ribbons

Prepare the green beans and fingerling potatoes: In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the potatoes until just tender, about 8 to 10 minutes; use a slotted spoon to remove the potatoes to a colander to cool. To the same pot, add the green beans and blanch for 1 minute; transfer to a colander and run under very cold water to stop cooking. Slice the potatoes into rounds about 1/4-inch thick.

Spoon a generous Tablespoon of dressing into the bottom of the jar, then layer the rest of the ingredients in this order: cherry tomatoes, shredded cooked chicken, green beans, sliced potatoes, black olives and, finally, lettuce. Keep refrigerated until about 30 minutes before serving. Shake the jar to distribute the dressing.

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