Cooking & Spirituality: Greek Salad in a Jar
By Lucia Ferarra
This is a great make-ahead recipe and a great to-go meal. You want to prepare at least one day before you plan to eat it. Make it in the evening, refrigerator overnight and have a salad for lunch the next day. In fact, it will keep in the refrigerator for up to four days.
When you’re ready to eat this salad, tip the jar upside down over a large dinner plate or a large bowl and shake until all the ingredients are out of the jar. The shaking and tumbling out of the jar mixes the ingredients like a tossed salad.
Serve with a good baguette or crunchy breadsticks to round out your meal. Salad in a jar is perfect for picnics or to-go lunches at work or at school.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with your own ingredients: diced carrots, baby arugula, kale or a hardy lettuce like escarole, watercress or mesclun are all ingredients that would work in this salad. Some people may want to toss in a few nuts at the top of the jar with the feta cheese. Try it!
The Vinegarette
1 garlic clove, minced
2-3 sprigs of fresh oregano, stems removed
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup balsamic vinegar (or substitute with red wine vinegar)
½ cup and bit more of olive oil
Dab of Dijon mustard (optional)
Juice of one lemon
This makes more than twice the amount of vinegarette you will need for two jars of salad
The Salad
2 24 oz Mason jar
½ cup cooked quinoa (optional)
¼ – ½ avocado (optional)
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups fresh spinach
12-15 Kalamata olives, halved
12-15 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cup red onion, chopped
Half bell pepper, diced (I like red bell pepper, use the color you like)
¾ cup cucumber, peeled and diced
½ cup feta cheese, crumbled
Directions
Add the ingredients to the jars in the following order
1. A couple tablespoons of the vinegarette
2. Chickpeas
3. if you are using them, quinoa and avocado
4. Tomatoes, onions, olives, cukes, bell pepper
5. Stuff spinach in tight
6. Top with feta cheese.
Cooking as Spiritual Practice
The following is excerpted from a prayer by Wendell Berry in “Earth Prayers from around the World” edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon (HaperSanFranciso, 1991)
Within the circle of our lives
we dance the circles of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circle of the years,
the cycles of the moon
writing the circles of the seasons,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon.
… The circles turn,
each giving into each, into all.
only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held.
in the hold of hands and eyes
we turn in pairs, that joining
joining each to all again
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[Lucia Ferrara, the Director of Hospitality at Precious Blood Renewal Center. Share your thoughts with Lucia or ask her questions using the form below or by sending an email to info@pbrenewalcenter.org.]
[Music]
good morning my name is Luchia Ferrar
and I’m here at the precious blood
Renewal Center I’m director of
hospitality and I’m coming to you today
with a great spring summer salad um it’s
a great to go recipe you can prepare it
a night or two before um and and because
the more it marinates with your
chickpeas the better so let me get let
me get started so I call this my Greek
chickpea and spinach salad in a jar okay
and I like to use these bigger mason
jars so um I don’t even know how many
ounces these are I think they’re about
24
oz um so that’s how big these are so um
and then I use this smaller jar Mason
jar for uh it’s about half the size
maybe for my dressing so what I was
saying a minute ago about making it
ahead is that you can make if you think
you’re going to you and your loved one
who’s taking lunches to work or wherever
on the go um you can make these the
night before you can make these a couple
days before and um it will last in the
refrigerator for up to four or 5 days
okay so let’s start so first what I’m
going to do is tell you what I have is
our
ingredients super simple okay so you
need to get one can of chickpeas which
is
um um just one can you need to drain
them I like to rinse them and get the uh
sodium kind of washed off of them so I
have my chickpeas I’ve got about a cup
or two of my spinach now remember the
recipe I’m giving you I’ll make a couple
of jars like two or three jars
so it kind of just depends on how you
like things okay so and then I’ve got
Greek camata olives um some folks like
to just cut them in half before they put
them in the jar I like mine um hole it
doesn’t really matter okay so I’ve cut
I’ve I’ve kind of sliced a few for you
just to see there um and then I have
sweet cherry grape tomatoes okay so i’
I’ve went ahead and have those so I
sliced those and half and I don’t know
for a couple of jars you would need um
about a half a cup to a cup like I said
it kind of depends on um what you like
okay or whoever you’re making it for
really likes okay and then I cut up a a
nice Red Onion um about half a cup of
that and then I chose to cut up red
pepper today because that’s what I had
in the refrigerator at home so I brought
um I chopped up about a half of a red
pepper okay and then I got um a cucumber
cleaned it sliced it and um then I cut
it again so in really I chopped it and
this is about 34 cup of cucumber I love
cucumber it’s really good for you so I
kind of like to add a little bit more
than that okay
then I have feta cheese um you may be a
feta cheese fan you may not um I kind of
grew into my um liking of feta so um I’m
not going to use a whole lot so when I
show you how we’re going to make it I’m
just going to take a dab of it and put
it in there so it could be about a
tablespoon or two if that’s what you
choose to do okay so what we’re going to
do and then we have the vinegret which
I’ll go ahead and start with the
vinegret so what I have here is I
got um one garlic clove and I um chopped
it and got it all ready and then I got
some oregano I love fresh oregano M it
just smells really good and if you leave
it dry in your refrigerator in a
container it’ll last you a little bit
okay so what I did is I just took a
couple sprigs of that took the little
oregano leaves off chopped it all up
with my
garlic okay and um I’m going to put it
in my
jar so we’re going to do
that like to get all of it in there all
right there’s that I’m going to go ahead
and add my little pinch of
pepper
my pinch of
salt and I’m going to throw some behind
me for good luck all right and um let’s
see then I use a good olive oil all
right but before we put a good o of oil
in there let me do the balsamic vinegar
so I I like to use uh balsamic V vinegar
and because I want to make extra of this
I’m going to add a little bit more so
I’m going to do
about oh I don’t know half a cup of the
balsamic
vinegar so let’s see we’re going to do
half a cup of
balsamic in
here
and then we’re going to add
the um olive oil
okay all right and you could also if you
don’t have balsamic on hand go ahead and
use a red wine vinegar if you don’t have
balsamic I just choose to use balsamic
cuz I really like it all right and so
does my family so we use it all the time
um then I’m going to put about a half a
cup
of olive oil in
here maybe a little bit
more just a tad bit more not quite 2/3
but we’ll go with it okay so we’re going
to add that in
there all
right now at this point some folks may
add maybe like a little teaspoon of
Dijon mustard which is fine I’m not
putting it in there today um my family
doesn’t really go for too much of that
but if you if you do that’s great so
then I’m going to squeeze a juice of one
lemon so let me cut that
up put it in
here
okay let’s see here I’m not doing very
good
on
that all right now if you’re not
the if you’re not a
um gal or guy that
likes um a lot of
um the
uh balsamic vinegret you’re welcome to
use all of your uh lemon
okay
okay now I will tell you with a lemon
this is smelling really good by the
way with
lemon when you use lemon in a dressing
it brings out iron in the spinach
believe it or not I learned that long
time ago so
okay so now we’re going to shake this
all
up now this is even better you guys when
you make this like 3 or 4 days ahead and
it’s sitting in the refrigerator for a
couple days and then you put it in your
um mason jar salad
so
okay here we go there’s your
vinegarette now we’re going to assemble
our
salads so this is what I do
now what you can do is I’ve added quinoa
to this and um we didn’t today but you
can and if I was going to do that I
would add my Ki wall after I add my
chickpeas now the reason why you put
your
um chickpeas in
first after you add your
um salad dressing it’s because you want
those chickpeas and the quinoa to soak
in your dressing cuz that’s what’s going
to give your um the flavor okay and plus
when you if you dump your salad on a
plate or a bowl when you’re ready to eat
it looks really pretty okay so I don’t
know I just kind of eyeball
it maybe a couple tablespoons okay of
dressing down in
there okay and then I’m going to add my
chickpeas if you’re not a big chickpea
fan well then don’t use chickpeas but
this is what I like go ahead and add
cantalini beans those are a real good
hearty uh Bean as well well you can also
do black beans I’ve seen it done with
black beans it just doesn’t give the
same
um doesn’t have the same texture all
right so here’s our can chickpeas in our
balsamic Greek vinegret
okay now we are going to add the spinach
well wait a minute let me think this out
I forget we’re going to put Tomatoes
first okay so we’re going to put
Tomatoes first in
there
okay then we’re going to put some
onion okay doesn’t have to be a whole
whole
lot like I said it all depends on how
you like stuff and then going to add my
olives my colam to
olives and like I said earlier you
can slice them you can leave them whole
I like a little bit both then I’m going
to add my um
cucumbers
okay I told you I likeed cucumbers so
I’m going to add all of these
these
in now I’m going to add my red pepper
now I like red pepper and like I said
that’s what I had at home um ready to go
so I just chopped it up but you could
use a yellow bell pepper you can use an
orange bell pepper or a green pepper so
it’s kind of to your
liking and that’s what’s so fun about
this type of salad in a jar is that you
can customize it to however you like
it all right so we put that in there now
remember you’re going to leave room for
[Music]
your
um
spinach
okay I love spinach now the thing with
fresh spinach is if if you want to chop
it up you can I like mine like
this but it does not have to be
chopped all right doesn’t that look nice
okay now we’re going to fill it with
our feta
cheese put that on
top like
that like that
and you know what else guys this is good
for a picnic okay so if you guys with
summer and spring here coming and
everything if you guys are planning on
picnics and you want to do a quick salad
the night before this is a great way to
do
it all right then I just put my
little mason jar Tops on here tighten it
up
Now isn’t that isn’t that pretty I just
love this and it’s so fresh and so you
got your chickpeas marinating when you
pour it out I’m not going to but when
you pour it out it’s going to come all
down the ju the vinegret is just going
to pour down on all of your um your
salad and these can be made a couple
days ahead I wouldn’t um
wait too long to eat them because it’s
so good you’re not going to want to wait
but um if you are going on a picnic I
kind of like to pair it up with some um
grini so those are like Italian little
bread sticks um instead of using
crackers or I mean you’re welcome to use
bread um baguette bread french bread
Italian bread whatever kind of bread you
like I just like to use these and just
kind of fun to take with me and um no
slicing and if you’re on a picnic not at
work but if you’re on a picnic and want
to take some wine to enjoy with it I
would do that all right well you guys
this is it for today so I hope you’ve
enjoyed this um little um
Mediterranean
Greek um salad in a jar so like I said
said I hope you enjoy it I would love to
hear back from you guys to see if any of
you tried it and what you think about it
so um but before we leave I have a
little um I always like to end with
something and so today I just thought
this was a neat earthy prayer um it’s
it’s like a little poem and it’s from a
person named wendle
Berry and here it is so I’m going to
leave you with this within the circle of
Our Lives we dance the circle of the
years the circles of the seasons within
the circles of the years the circles
cycles of the Moon within the circles of
the seasons the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the
Moon again again we come and go changed
and changing hands join unjoin in love
love and fear grief and joy the circles
turn each giving into each into all only
music keeps us here each by all the
others held in the hold of hands and
eyes we turn in pairs that joining
joining each to all again and then we
turn aside alone out of the sunlight
gone into the darker circles of return
so may I leave you with peace health and
happiness today and until next time come
visit me at the center I’d love to see
you come visit us here at the precious
blood Renewal Center thank you bye
[Music]