3 Rules for a Better Work Salad
It’s happened to all of us: You pack a salad for work in the morning, praising yourself as you walk out the door for being so put together. But when lunchtime comes around, you’re suddenly less than enthused — plus, there’s free pizza in the conference room.
But wait! That salad is actually pretty great — and it could be even better. Yes, forget the subpar pizza and focus on your carefully packed salad. Bring it to life with these three simple rules.
1. Eat it in a large, wide bowl.
Eating a salad that’s jam-packed into a Mason jar or other lidded container is hard and, more importantly, not enjoyable. You can hardly get a good bite when you dig in because each ingredient is just stuffed on top of each other. That’s why you should embrace the large, wide bowl.
Either dig through your office kitchen to find one or just keep one you really like at your desk. Dump your salad into it and let it breathe. Then you’ll be able to freely stab at the salad. Plus, there’s just something about eating out of an extra-large bowl that’s innately satisfying.
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2. Salt it upon eating.
You know what your salad is missing? It’s salt. Yes, I am that confident that I don’t even need to taste or look at the thing to know. A sprinkle of salt on a salad is an incredible thing — it brightens it and makes it a whole lot more interesting.
Flaky sea salt is the best for this, as it provides little, uneven-sized flecks of crunchy, salty goodness that surprise you when you dig in for a forkful of vegetables. But those little crystals will melt into your salad and be forgotten if you sprinkle them on in the morning. Instead, keep a little box at your desk and finish your salad with a pinch before eating.
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3. Use a real fork.
Plastic forks don’t get the job done; they actually just make for an incredibly frustrating salad-eating experience. Don’t stab the lettuce incessantly with the hope it with latch onto the plastic fork, while you’re actually just bruising it. Real, stainless steel forks are your friend and they want to help you eat salad.