Kale Quinoa Salad

This colorful kale quinoa salad is full of healthy ingredients and tastes incredible! Meal prep this easy plant-based lunch idea for meals all week.

Looking for healthy lunch ideas? Here’s a salad that’s beautifully fresh and saves well for meals throughout the week: kale quinoa salad! Alex and I typically eat pretty boring for lunch, but we’ve been trying to up our game. And we’re thrilled to add this one to our repertoire. It’s full of healthy ingredients: quinoa, kale, peppers, carrots: and then covered in a delicious, ultra tangy dressing! It’s so flavorful and keeps that flavor 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Our lunches just got way more exciting! It also works as a side salad for healthy dinners.

What’s in this kale quinoa salad?

This kale quinoa salad has limited ingredients. Because our philosophy around here is pretty simple cooking (we even wrote a book about it). Yes, in every recipe we try to use as little ingredients as possible to get the biggest flavor. It’s a plant based salad, and makes a fantastic tasty vegan lunch. Here’s what’s in this kale quinoa salad:

• Quinoa: Use our stovetop quinoa or Instant Pot quinoa methods to make up a big pot.
• Chickpeas: Using chickpeas adds plant-based protein. Substitute white beans if you’re not a chickpea fan!
• Tuscan kale: Kale holds up well in the fridge and is a healthy leafy green! (More below.)
• Bell pepper: Bell pepper is crunchy and full of Vitamin C.
• Carrots: Carrot adds another healthy crunch and lovely color.
• Dressing: The dressing is seriously simple: lots of apple cider vinegar to keep that tangy flavor for days, olive oil, and Dijon mustard.

And there’s one more secret ingredient…

And, the secret spice!

The last ingredient in this salad is optional, but we recommend it for big flavor. It’s this: 1 pinch of curry powder! We wanted to point this out because it’s not intended to make the salad taste like curry. Instead, it adds a unique complexity that’s almost imperceptible. That’s the key to making this healthy salad taste intriguingly delicious! If you don’t have it on hand, you can skip this part.

It’s easy to meal prep!

This kale quinoa salad is easy to meal prep for healthy lunches throughout the week: or an easy dinner! Here are a few notes on meal prep:

• The salad stays fresh for 3 days (4 as a stretch). Many salads don’t work in the fridge. But this one is designed for it! Store it in the fridge and it tastes just as good for 3 days (the 4 day it starts to get a little tired, but we still ate what was left!).
• Easiest way: use leftover quinoa. This salad is easiest to make if you make a big batch of quinoa and then use leftovers to make the salad. This way the quinoa is already cool! But you can also make it the day of.
• If cooking quinoa day of, use our quick tip for cooling! You’ll need to cool down the quinoa quickly if you make it the day of. Our trick is to spread it on a baking sheet and pop it in the freezer for a few minutes. It cools right down to be able to assemble into the salad.

Variations on kale quinoa salad: mix ins!

There are lots of different additions you could add to this kale quinoa salad to spice it up a bit! Here are some of our favorite ideas:

• Shredded Parmesan cheese: We tried this and the extra savory it added was delicious!
• Chopped almonds or other nuts: Nuts add a nice hit of protein. Add these right before serving to keep them crunchy!
• Dried cherries, cranberries or raisins: Add a sweet and savory element with dried fruit (yum!).
• Chopped apples: Apples add a crunch and another savory sweet element.
• Chopped cucumber, celery, or other crunchy veggie: Add a handful of any other chopped veggie for even more crunch.

Use Tuscan kale if you can find it

One note on kale varieties! Our favorite variety to use is Tuscan kale. Tuscan kale is an Italian variety with dark green, ruffled leaves. It has a mild and sweet flavor, making it easier to palate than the spicy and more bitter curly kale. It can be labeled as many different things in the grocery. Look for Tuscan, Lacinato, dinosaur kale, or cavolo nero: they’re all the same thing!

How to serve kale quinoa salad for lunch

To make this kale quinoa salad a filling and satisfying lunch, here are a few things we’ve served with it:

• Bread: Try our artisan bread, whole wheat bread or garlic naan for homemade
• Crackers: Try our almond cashew crackers (gluten-free)
• Pita chips: Try our homemade pita chips
• Nuts: A handful of roasted salted almond adds protein
• Fruit: Sliced green apple would be a nice accompaniment

Serve it as a side dish or dinner salad!

Of course, you can serve kale quinoa salad for dinner too! It would be perfect as a recipe for a potluck or pitch-in in the summer. Or it’s an easy side dish for any season. You could also make this vegan quinoa recipe into a main dish salad! Here’s what we’d recommend:

• With seafood. Try it with garlic shrimp, baked shrimp, broiled shrimp, or oven baked salmon as a healthy, easy side dish.
• With pasta. Fill out a dinner by serving with an easy pasta like vegan fettucine alfredo or pasta primavera.
• With soup. It would be great with creamy broccoli soup or loaded potato soup to make it into a healthy meal.

This kale quinoa salad recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

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More easy lunch ideas

There’s always room for more inspiration for lunches, right? Here are some of our favorites:

• 15 Healthy Lunch Ideas All our favorite healthy lunch ideas!
• Pecan & Veggie Mini Frittatas A quick nutritious breakfast or lunch! Make them ahead to grab and go.
• Tuna Salad with Egg This tuna salad with egg is creamy and savory, perfect as an easy lunch or dinner idea. Or try our Best Classic Tuna Salad.
• Classic Tuna Pasta Salad Creamy and satisfying! It’s a protein-packed quick and easy dinner or make ahead lunch.