Mason Jar Pork Noodle Salad

Mason jar salads are the perfect way to batch-prep lunches for the week. They’re colourful, satisfying and incredibly practical. The clever layering keeps everything crisp so the salad stays fresh in the fridge for days without going soggy. Even better, you can squeeze HEAPS of different plant foods into a single jar which your gut microbiome absolutely loves. This is particularly helpful if you're following the low fodmap diet. Sometimes the “safe” serving size of certain foods can feel small. But when you spread ingredients across several jars for the week, you can comfortably use the whole ingredient without waste. This Asian-style pork noodle salad is packed with colour, crunch and flavour - tender pork mince, noodles, crunchy cabbage, fresh herbs and a creamy peanut dressing.

INGREDIENTS

This is for 1 x standard mason jar (mine was 475ml). Scale up depending on how many you are meal prepping. Because you’ll be limited by space, there’s almost no way that you can fodmap stack so I’ve not been too prescriptive with the quantities (except for the sauce).

PORK

• 100 g lean pork mince

• 1 tsp garlic-infused olive oil

• 1 tsp gluten-free soy sauce or tamari

SALAD

• 75g or ½ cup cooked Hokkien noodles (200g or 2 cups is the recommended low fodmap serving size)

• 1/2 carrot (I used a grater to make extra thin julienned slices)

• 1/2 cucumber (once again, I used a grater to make extra thin slices)

• small handful of baby spinach

• smaller handful of bean sprouts

• 20g or 1/4 cup green and purple cabbage, shredded

• 1 tbsp spring onion, sliced green tops

• small handful of herbs including Thai basil leaves, garden variety mint leaves and coriander

• 1 tsp each sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds (or perhaps some crunchy rice noodles if you have them handy)

DRESSING

• 1 tbsp crunchy peanut butter (I used Fix & Fog 5 Seed)

• 2 tsp lime juice

• 1 tsp gluten-free soy sauce or tamari

• ½ tsp maple syrup

• ½ tsp sesame oil

• 1–2 tbsp warm water (to thin)

METHOD

1.Prep the dressing

Mix the ingredients together and place in the bottom of the mason jar. You want the dressing to be at the bottom of the jar, not touching the fresh salad ingredients.

2. Cook the pork

Heat garlic-infused oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add pork mince and cook until browned. Stir through soy sauce and cook for another minute. Allow to cool BEFORE placing on top of the sauce in the mason jar. If you add the pork when it’s still hot, you will find that the sauce ‘hardens’ with the heat. This isn’t a huge problem but it will mean that you will need to stir and shake more to spread the dressing when you serve it.

3. Layer salad ingredients

Add the noodles to create a buffer between the soggy meat & sauce and the fresh salad ingredients. On top of the noodles, place the rest of the ingredients in layers. Finish with the almonds.

4. To serve

Tip the jar into a bowl and toss so that the dressing coats everything.