The best way to pack a salad isn't a lunch box

The best way to pack a salad isn’t a lunch box — it’s a wide-mouth mason jar.

If you want crisp greens at noon, leave the lunch box in the drawer. Use a mason jar instead. The whole problem with salad containers is that dressing touches the leaves and kills them. In a jar, you control that with layering: dressing on the bottom, then hardy stuff like cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and shredded carrots, then your greens packed on top. When you’re ready to eat, shake it and the dressing coats everything evenly without turning it into a soggy mess.

If you’re the type who likes having a real lunch box, get one with a leak-proof dressing cup that snaps into the lid. Many bento boxes have this. They work fine. But the jar is cheaper, doesn’t leak, and lets you eat straight out of the container. Also cleans up better than any fancy thing with multiple compartments.

No need to drop forty bucks on a specialty salad container. A $5 jar and a little layering is the hack that actually works.