A great way to make your lunch salads ahead of time is to use Mason jars to stack them. The bottom layer is the dressing, then pile on hardy items up to the greens. My favorite layering options - lime vinaigrette, black beans, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, cucumber, greens. The beans can handle sitting in the dressing while the greens stay fresh.

I have a great, healthy cabbage slaw recipe. I use a bag of angel hair cabbage (b/c I have lousy knives that make cutting a whole cabbage a chore), a bunch of cilantro, 3 minced cloves of garlic, and lots of black pepper. Dress it with olive oil and lime juice and let it rest for at least 2 hours. (I use a 50:50 ratio, but do this to your taste since I prefer mine to be very tangy.)
This can be dressed up with sriracha, peanuts, avocado, etc... and is also great as a topping for tacos or alongside bbq chicken.

@JackyH That mason jar layering method is BRILLIANT. Thanks for sharing it.

@SRGallender and that sounds like an awesome recipe.

I find that the best way to get salads into my lunch is to have them at dinner the night before or even breakfast in the morning. Lately it's gone something like this: Dinner, hearty comfort food thing, ehh why not wash some kale and toss it in. While I'm washing, do a whole batch so I have more for later. Breakfast: carbohydrate (toast, polenta, oatmeal) with sauteed kale and/or other veggie and poached egg on top (or omelette. Same thing just in a different order). Either the night before or at breakfast, I keep my lunch salad container (a very large gladware thing) right beside me as I prep and clean up. All salad-y things go into it. Sometimes I have a plan, sometimes it's a free-form salad, but either way the ONLY rules are as follows: store dry & crunch and damp/pickled in separate containers for later mixing. Often I'll just tuck a small bottle (those sample-size liquor bottles are PERFECT) of a vinegarette or other liquidy dressing in with the greens and place a baggie with croutons, nuts, seeds etc on top. Come lunchtime I just empty everything into the container, shake with enthusiasm, and consume!

if you want to dress your salad as part of the "make ahead," you're going to need to use sturdy greens. my favorite greens for this kind of salad are kale, seaweed (hijiki or wakeme), and cabbage. they'll all soak up the dressing in a way that makes the salad more delicious, but not soggy.

my favorite combinations:

for kale --> granny smith + almonds OR kale + oil-cured olives + oranges + walnuts (both with olive oil & lemon dressing)

for seaweed --> grated carrots + edamame + miso dressing

for cabbage --> grated carrots + red pepper + mustard dressing

otherwise, if you're willing to do a little work on the spot, you can toss pretty much any green with a little olive oil and tuck a lemon wedge into your storage container-- when you're ready to eat, just give the lemon a squeeze and toss a bit and you've got instant dressing!

also, i love @jackyh's idea!! i'm going to try that next week!

Kale salads hold up remarkably well and improve over a day or two of being already dressed and waiting for you in the fridge.

I also do what another poster recommends: I build my salad upside in my container of choice with my dressing, cut up salad toppings/veggies on top of the dressing and then the more delicate greens on top of that. Insert into bowl that I keep at work and voila-salad is done with not a soggy green in sight!

Another alternative could be to roast up a whole bunch of vegetables with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bring a portion to toss with some fresh greens (spinach, baby arugula, mesclun mix?) when you're ready to eat lunch. Additions like soft goat cheese or toasted nuts are great, but I think with the flavour from the roast veggies dressing isn't really necessary (though no reason not to bring a little jar of vinaigrette if you want to!).

Mix arugula, cooked cooled quinoa, feta cheese, and halved grape tomatoes. Vinaigrette dressing in a separate container. This was originally from the Chinese Grandma blog.

Great way to eat lots of arugula.

I typically bring a bag of salad-ready kale and my small repurposed mustard jar with the Kale Tuscan Salad dressing (sans breadcrumbs) from 101 Cookbooks blog (I think the recipe was also featured here once...)

My other favorite is to bring arugula (and maybe some spinach), an avocado, a mango and a lime with me to work. I'm lucky in that I kitchen at my office a place to prep the salad fresh, squeeze the lime over and add a little salt.

Get a little container of dressing and bring an undressed salad. Dress right before eating. Then the possibilities are endless. My bento has a little flip top sauce holder, but I've also reused to-go sauce holders from restaurants or use the very smallest lidded container I have. Although I think the mason jar is a clever solution also.

I've been on a farro kick lately and have been making a kale & farro salad with roasted beets, spiced pecans, avocado and a simple lemon vinaigrette. You can transport the vinaigrette in a separate container and toss when your ready to eat. Delish!

I like mostly vegetable salads - they keep in the fridge well so you can make big batches and then just throw some in a mason jar in the morning when you have to leave for work. I also find them much more filling than salads with mostly greens, especially if nuts are involved.

For something with some greens, I like this Asian Winter Slaw with bok choy. But my favorite recent discovery is Apple Celery Salad with sliced almonds. So good!

If you're in the mood for something special (and don't mind some prep work the night before), the best salad I've ever had is this one from My New Roots: Poppy Seed-Crusted Butternut Squash with Kale and Pomegranates. Seriously, everyone needs to try it (now while you might still be able to find a pomegranate somewhere...)

Tabouli (made with lost of parsley and only a little bulgur, in the traditional way) keeps very nicely in the fridge overnight, even though it is dressed. And parsley counts as a green!

I also make a twist on tabouli, with quinoa in place of the bulgur, and chopped baby spinach in place of the parsley. The rest of the recipe is identical to my tabouli recipe-- a handful of chopped mint, diced cucumber, tomatoes (in the winter I use cherry tomatoes, the only ones with acceptable flavor in the winter IMO), lemon juice (lots), olive oil, and salt and pepper. You can add some cooked chickpeas and/or a sprinkle of crumbled feta if you want a protein boost. So good, very nutritious, and keeps very well overnight in the fridge and as a lunchbox item.

I love kale salads, too! My favorite uses lemon juice and olive oil with sea salt and a touch of garlic for the dressing, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, sliced kalamata olives, sliced green onion, and diced cucumber and/or chopped red or orange bell pepper for some nice raw crunch. Sprinkle on just a little grated parmesan right before eating. So good!