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Recipes Meal Prep

How to Meal Prep Salads that Stay Fresh

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Author:

Erin

Published:

March 13, 2022

Updated:

March 21, 2025

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for details.

Happy Sunday, meal preppers! As we start dipping our toes into spring and warmer weather (despite the winter storm yesterday), I wanted to share my tips for how to meal prep salads that stay fresh all week. I’m a salad all year round kind of person, and if you’ve seen any of my weekly meal plans, you know it’s rare that I don’t prep a salad weekly. And since I’ve been meal prepping for nearly a decade, I’ve learned a few tricks for keeping salads as fresh as possible throughout the week.

  • Tips for Prepping Salads
  • How to Build a Mason Jar Salad
  • How to Build a Meal Prep Container Salad
  • Other Options for Salad Prep
  • Recommended Salad Prep Containers
  • Other Salad Prep Essentials

Take a look below at the “evolution” of my salad preps. In the 2014 and 2016 photos, you can see that I kind of just piled everything on top of the lettuce, including cheese, fruits/veggies, and protein. By 2017, I’d changed my strategy a bit and started to separate things out while keeping it all in the same container. I gotta admit, I’m cringing a little bit looking at those black plastic containers…they weren’t air tight, leaked everywhere, and cracked really easily. Well, I guess the salads didn’t really leak, but other foods definitely did! I’ll share my salad container recommendations in a minute…

Summer Salad – 2014
Harvest Salad – 2016
Chinese Chicken Salad – 2017

…but look at my salads now! I’ve been using dedicated salad prep containers or mason jars since early 2018 and I haven’t looked back since. Well, I guess until just now 😉

Turkey Taco Salad – 2020
Big Mac Salad – 2021
Greek Salad – 2022

Tips for Prepping Salads

Let’s start off with some basics for meal prepping salads, then we can get into more specifics on how to build them in mason jars and salad containers.

Use dedicated, quality salad prep containers

As you can see from my “evolution” of salad prep photos above, I’m now a firm believer in this approach and have long since ditched my flimsy black plastic meal prep containers. If you prep salads frequently, salad containers are 100% worth the investment for several reasons, the first of which is that they keep your ingredients separated. That leads me to my 2nd and 3rd points…

Keep wet/soft veggies, cheeses away from lettuce

The moisture in them encourages the lettuce to wilt in spots where they come in contact. And once that lettuce starts wilting, things can go downhill pretty quickly. That said, hard vegetables or beans can usually come in contact with your lettuce and be just fine. As you can see in the photos above, I put onions and black beans directly on top of my lettuce with no issues. I do the same thing with roasted butternut squash on top of a bed of kale.

Protein should generally hang out on its own

There are a couple reasons for this – you don’t want it to touch your lettuce for the same reasons listed above, but this also makes it easier to heat it up when you’re ready to eat.

Dry off lettuce before adding to containers

A salad spinner can be your best friend for this! It will help you remove as much water as possible from your greens after washing. I also like to use a small piece of paper towel under my bed of lettuce to help absorb any residual moisture.

Use fresh, prep-friendly lettuce

I hate to break it to my spinach and spring mix lovers out there, but those leaves are just really hard to keep from wilting, no matter how many of my tips you follow from this list. There’s nothing I hate more than to open up a salad after a few days in the fridge only to discover a rotten smell and brown/slimy lettuce leaves. My recommended salad greens are: green leaf lettuce (my favorite!), romaine lettuce hearts, kale, and arugula. Arugula is the least hearty of the bunch, but still holds up pretty well.

How to Build a Mason Jar Salad

The trick to a successful mason jar salad is getting the layering right! You don’t want to have wet tomatoes sitting on top of your lettuce or it will be soggy within a few hours. Instead, try this order starting on the bottom:

  1. Dressing – Keep the liquid at the bottom of the jar to keep it from messing with your other toppings.
  2. Proteins – in most cases, it’s perfectly fine for your protein to sit right in the dressing. If your dressing is super acidic, you might have some issues with it changing the texture of the meat, but I’ve never had an issue yet.
  3. Hearty vegetables and legumes – These are items like onions, carrots, beans, sweet potatoes, and beets that don’t break down easily and can stand up to touching protein and dressing for an extended period. If you’re making a salad or burrito bowl with rice or grains, I’d put those right on top of the meat, then hearty veggies/legumes next.
  4. Softer vegetables and fruits – This layer should include any wet veggies/fruits that are more tender than your last layer, and they are typically juicy or wet because they’ve been chopped. That includes things like tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and pickled items. If you’re an olive eater, I’d stick them in this layer too.
  5. Cheese – There’s not really a perfect place to situate the cheese in a mason jar salad, but I’ve found this is the place where I get the best results. Although it does come into contact here with wet veggies and lettuce, it holds up well and doesn’t wilt the lettuce.
  6. Lettuce – You may not be able to tell in the photos here, but I shove as much lettuce as I possibly can into the jar. This is where a wide-mouth jar really comes in handy, which is what I recommend using.
  7. Nuts and dried fruit – Finish up your mason jar salad with anything you want to keep dry, like nuts and dried cranberries. For things that you want to keep crispy, like tortilla strips or wonton strips, I recommend leaving those out of the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat. They’ll definitely lose their crunch in the fridge.
Recipes ↓
Containers ↓
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Mason Jar Salad Recipes

1
Big Mac Salad
This Big Mac Salad is a fast food favorite turned low carb salad – totally craveable and perfect for a meal prep lunch!
Recipe
2
Thai Noodle Salad
Inspired by an amazing Thai Steak Salad at one of my favorite restaurants in San Antonio, this salad is hearty and surprising!
Recipe
3
Mason Jar Chicken Cobb Salad
This no-heat lunch is a great for taking to work! Pack it up in a mason jar to keep it fresh and convenient to carry.
Recipe

How to Build a Meal Prep Container Salad

If you’re still skeptical of jumping on the mason jar salad bandwagon, use a regular salad meal prep container instead! There are a ton on the market, but my favorite is this one from the Rubbermaid Brilliance line. They’re not cheap, but I’ve been using mine weekly since early 2018 and they’re still in great shape! Just a quick note on the price – you can usually get them much cheaper as part of a set of meal prep containers. Seriously, check it out! I prefer the container over the jar for a few reasons, the main one being that it’s just easier to build a salad this way. You can also eat your salad right out of the container instead of needing to dump everything into another bowl. Aside from that, I like that there’s plenty of space for lots of lettuce and toppings, plus they keep all your ingredients separated until you’re ready to mix them together.

That said, because I eat salads with lots of protein, there isn’t always enough room in the toppings tray for cheese or nuts. But you can always put the cheese in a container like this and wedge it down in with the lettuce, or just leave it on the side. Just don’t put the cheese itself directly in contact with the lettuce or protein!

Salad Container Recipes

4
Easy Greek Chicken Salad
My Juicy Air Fryer Chicken pairs perfectly with this salad. It works great with the Mediterranean-inspired flavors – the rosemary and dried lemon peel are perfect complements to the briny kalamata olives and tangy feta cheese.
Recipe
5
Asian Inspired Chicken Salad
This bright, fresh Asian Inspired Chicken Salad is made with citrus ginger marinated chicken and topped with sesame ginger dressing. And it’s great for meal prep with a few quick tips!
Recipe
6
Turkey Taco Salad
Black beans go right on top of the lettuce in the container – so long as you’ve drained them well, they won’t mess it up. I always serve this with tortilla strips on top, but I keep those out of the refrigerator so they don’t get soggy.
Recipe
7
Roasted Butternut Squash & Kale Salad
I’ve been meal prepping this hearty salad for years. I love how the gentle sweetness of the squash and pecans plays with the tartness of the cranberries and honey mustard dressing. Then the goat cheese just melds it all together!
8
Olive Garden Salad
There's something so addicting about Olive Garden's salad! I decided to turn it into a meal (prep) by adding chicken. Keep the croutons out of the fridge to maintain crispiness and keep the Parmesan cheese separate until it’s time to eat.
Recipe

Other Options for Salad Prep

Buffet Style Salad

This photo is actually for Southwest Turkey Lettuce Wraps, but you get the idea. Prep your greens and toppings, but keep them separate until you’re ready to eat. This is a great option if you’re working from home!

Weekly Buffet Meal Prep

I don’t often do this kind of prep, but it’s actually pretty awesome for a short week or when I know I’ll be working from home a lot. I can just grab whatever ingredients I’m in the mood for, toss them together, and get a bunch of different meal and salad combos.

Recommended Salad Prep Containers

My all time favorite salad prep container has been the Rubbermaid Brilliance Salad Containers, but there are a few other good ones out there that I’ve tried.

Rubbermaid

Bentgo Glass

Mason Jars

Goodful

Other Salad Prep Essentials

Salad Spinner

Dressing Shaker

Veggie Savers

Veggie Chopper

More Salad Recipes

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    Apple & Pear Chopped Kale Salad

  • Mason Jar Chicken Cobb Salad

    Mason Jar Chicken Cobb Salad

  • Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Chicken Salad

    Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Chicken Salad

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About Erin

Erin is the author behind Peanut Butter and Fitness. She started this website in 2013 as a way to keep track of her favorite healthier kitchen creations and meal preps. Today, she still loves playing with her food and camera while helping others strike a balance between indulgence and well-being.

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