What's for lunch? How to stop your salad from getting soggy before you eat it

Plus the Cork takeaway that's taking orders for healthy and delicious lunches

Stackable salads are a wonderful way to get your five a day.

Up until now, I have shied away from toting salads to work. The sheer effort involved in packing individual components in order to avoid a mushy slump when it comes to lunchtime seemed worth avoiding. Then, I discovered the joy of the stackable salad pot. The premise of this method is to layer your components in a jar or pot, keeping the dressing at the bottom, followed by the hardiest ingredients (those least likely to succumb to sogginess) in order of delicacy. Not only does it look gorgeous, but it's also a fantastic way to experiment with new flavour combinations, and use up the ends of vegetables that might have seen better days. 

When constructing my stackable salads, I make sure to include the following parts to ensure maximum deliciousness: something fresh and crunchy like cabbage or radicchio, something tangy like capers, olives or pickles, something bulky like cucumbers or tomatoes and finally, something crispy like roasted chickpeas or toasted seeds. Cheese or cured meat is non-negotiable for me, though I confess to storing that on the side and adding it at the very end, just before lunch. I like to air fry pieces of salami for five minutes and turn them into crispy, salty yumminess and sprinkle them on top of my salad with a flourish. They store well in the fridge for up to three days.