Mama always said, “Eat your veggies,” but it turns out that few of us are following that recommendation. Less than one in 10 Americans (9.3%) eat their recommended 2 ½ to 3 ½ cups of vegetables per day, according to the latest CDC estimates. When asked why they don’t eat more, one of the most commonly cited barriers is a “perceived lack of cooking/preparation time,” to which we say, “Been there, felt that!”.
Even the healthiest among us on Team BHG sometimes find ourselves at the end of the workday without having eaten a single veggie. Hey, oatmeal with berries for breakfast, a cheese stick snack, and PB&J with a banana at lunch are all wholesome, budget-friendly, and quick to eat between meetings, but this menu is not exactly the most veg-forward feast.
Focus on Veggies
So we’re on a mission to make mom’s wise words—and the dietary guidelines goals—more of a focus. Beyond blending vegetable smoothies to pair with breakfast and incorporating more frozen vegetable recipes into our meal plans for dinner, we’re aiming to eat more salads for lunch.
For heads of lettuce, we swear by this viral hack for keeping the lettuce fresh longer and stand behind these suggestions for selecting the best bagged salad kit that will last as long as possible. Sometimes, our biggest hurdle in the eat-more-salad scenario is that our all-time favorite chopped salads take time to build, and we’d prefer to store them assembled and all set to dress and devour.
Related: Fruits and Vegetables You Should Never Store Together (Unless You Want Them to Spoil Faster)
Easy Catering Hack
We immediately stopped scrolling when we spotted this trick from caterer and chef Timothy Clowers (@cheftimclowers) on Instagram.
In his how-to video, Clowers takes a big bowl of tossed, chopped salad—complete with bite-sized pieces of lettuce, slices of red onion and yellow bell pepper, and diced cucumber—and covers the top of the bowl with one or two layers of dry paper towels. Then he covers the bowl in plastic wrap and tucks it around the entire top and bottom of the bowl.
Here comes the secret: Clowers flips over the bowl and places it upside-down on a shelf in the refrigerator.
Clowers notes in the comments that he checks the mixture daily and replaces the paper towels as they dampen. With this approach, the salad appears to be as good as new after four full days.
Related: The 8 Best Salad Spinners of 2023
Why It Works
How does this sorcery work when some of our bagged salad kits appear slimy after just a couple of days? The plastic wrap keeps the salad nice and humid so the vegetables don’t dry out or wilt as quickly as they might when stored open to the air. The flipped-storage style helps prevent a pool of water from building up at the bottom of the bowl, and the paper towel absorbs any excess moisture. These wicking details come in clutch since water speeds up the decay of everything from lettuce to grapes.
Expanding Your Make-Ahead Salad Repetoire
Since that’s the case, most of our previous MVP make-ahead salad recipes are lettuce-free salads, such as bean salads, potato salads, and pasta salads. With our reinvigorated quest to veg out, and now that we have this paper towel + plastic wrap strategy in our meal prep repertoire, we’re all set to add more tossed salads like our Mediterranean salad and chopped green salad to our menus—no pricey trip to the deli or salad bar required.
The effect of this food storage hack multiplies when you consider the concept at scale. How slick would it be to toss together a huge batch of salad at the start of the week to add to a whole family's worth of lunches for a few days? We already have our sights set on employing this to prepare a party-sized salad for our next potluck or staff gathering.
Regardless of how many you’re feeding or when, add Clowers’ salad-saving strategy to your list of smart tips to cut kitchen waste and save money.
