This colorful Kale Quinoa Salad is packed with healthy ingredients and tastes amazing! Meal prep with this easy plant-based lunch idea for meals all week long.
Looking for healthy meal ideas? Here’s a salad that’s wonderfully fresh and great for meals throughout the week: Kale Quinoa Salad! Alex and I usually eat pretty boring lunches, but we tried to up our game. And we look forward to adding it to our repertoire. It’s packed with healthy ingredients: quinoa, kale, peppers, carrots: then topped with a delicious, super-flavorful dressing! That is Then tasty and keeps this flavor in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Our lunches just got a lot more exciting! It is also suitable as a side salad for healthy dinners.
What’s in this Kale Quinoa Salad?
This kale quinoa salad has limited ingredients. Because here is our philosophy pretty basic kitchen (We even wrote a book about it). Yes, in every recipe we try to use as few ingredients as possible to get the best taste. It’s a plant-based salad and a fantastically delicious vegan lunch. Here’s what’s in this Kale Quinoa Salad:
- Andean millet: Use our stovetop quinoa or instant pot quinoa methods to make a large pot.
- Chickpeas: Using chickpeas adds plant-based protein. Substitute kidney beans if you’re not a fan of chickpeas!
- Tuscan cabbage: Kale keeps well in the fridge and is a healthy leafy green! (More below.)
- Pepper: Paprika is crunchy and full of vitamin C.
- carrots: The carrot adds another healthy crunch and nice color.
- Bandage: The dressing is very simple: lots of apple cider vinegar to lock in the tangy flavor for days, olive oil and Dijon mustard.
And there’s another secret ingredient…
And the secret spice!
The last ingredient in this salad is optional, but we recommend it for the great taste. That’s it: 1 pinch of curry powder! We wanted to point this out as it is not intended to add a curry flavor to the salad. in place it adds an almost imperceptible unique complexity. This is the key to making this healthy salad taste intriguing and delicious! If you don’t have it handy, you can skip this part.
Preparing food is easy!
This Kale Quinoa Salad is easy to make for a healthy weeknight lunch: or an easy dinner! Here are some tips for preparing meals:
- The salad stays fresh for 3 days (4 in a row). Many salads don’t work in the fridge. But this one is made for it! Keep it in the fridge and it’s just as good for 3 days (it gets a bit tiring on day 4 but we still ate what was left!).
- The easiest way: use leftover quinoa. This salad is easier to make if you make a large batch of quinoa and then use the leftovers to make the salad. The quinoa is already fresh! But you can also do it on D-Day.
- If you’re cooking quinoa the same day, use our little trick to chill it! You must chill quinoa quickly if you are preparing it the same day. Our trick is to spread it out on a baking sheet and pop it in the freezer for a few minutes. It cools so it can be incorporated into the salad.
Variations on Kale Quinoa Salad: Mix-ins!
There are many different toppings that you can add to this Kale Quinoa Salad to spice it up a bit! Here are some of our favorite ideas:
- Grated Parmesan Cheese: We tried it and the extra salt was delicious!
- Chopped almonds or other nuts: Nuts add a good dose of protein. Add them just before serving to keep them crispy!
- Cherries, cranberries or raisins: Add a sweet and savory element with dried fruits (yummy!).
- Cut apples: The apples add a crunch and another salty-sweet element.
- Chopped cucumber, celery or other crunchy vegetables: Add a handful of other chopped veggies for extra crunch.
Use Tuscan cabbage if you can find it
A Note About Kale Varieties! Our favorite variety is Tuscan cabbage. Tuscan cabbage is an Italian variety with dark green ruffled leaves. It has a mild, sweet flavor that makes it tastier than the more bitter, tangy kale. There are so many different things that can be labeled at the grocery store. Seek Tuscan, lacinato, saurian cabbage or black cabbage: They are all the same !
How to serve kale and quinoa salad for lunch
To make this Kale Quinoa Salad a hearty and filling lunch, here are a few things we served it with:
Serve as a side dish or as a dinner salad!
Of course, you can also serve kale and quinoa salad for dinner! This would be perfect as a recipe for a summertime potluck or pitch-in. Or it’s a simple side dish for any season. You can also turn this vegan quinoa recipe into a salad as a main course! Here’s what we recommend:
This Kale Quinoa Salad recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.
The description
This colorful Kale Quinoa Salad is packed with healthy ingredients and tastes amazing! Meal prep with this easy plant-based lunch idea for meals all week long.
- 1 cup dry quinoa (3 cups cooked)
- 1 Bunch of Tuscan kale (also called lacinato kale, dinosaur kale, or cavolo nero)
- 15– ounces chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup finely chopped shallot (or red onion or spring onion)
- 1 pepper
- 2 carrots
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 small pinch of curry*
- 1 large clove of garlic, peeled and grated
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste**
- Prepare quinoa: Head to Stovetop Quinoa or Instant Pot Quinoa. Make ahead OR bring quinoa to room temperature if serving immediately: Spread quinoa in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until cool, 2-3 minutes.
- Prepare cabbage: Chop the cabbage. Sprinkle the kale with 1 pinch of kosher salt. Coat your hands with a few drops of olive oil and massage the kale leaves for 2-3 minutes until all the pieces are soft.
- Prepare the other vegetables: Finely chop the onion or shallot. Dice peppers. Peel and cut carrots.
- Mix dressing: In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, curry powder, and grated garlic.
- Serve the salad: Toss quinoa, chickpeas, and vegetables with dressing and ½ teaspoon kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Add more kosher salt to taste. Keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days (you may need to add a pinch of salt before serving as it loses salt over time).
Remarks
*A small pinch adds complexity to the salad without the curry flavor.
**Optional additions: Parmesan cheese, chopped almonds or other nuts, dried cherries, cranberries or raisins, chopped apples, chopped cucumbers, etc.
- Category: salad
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: Lunch
- Diet: vegan
Keywords: Kale Quinoa Salad
Easier lunch ideas
There’s always room for more lunchtime inspiration, right? Here are some of our favourites:
