Over on Instagram, I took a poll asking if you wanted to see a recipe for a quinoa salad that I’d been eating for lunch that week. Lots of you said yes, so here it is. Sorry I don’t have many pictures. I chose not to have it again for lunch this past week, but the picture I do have is a good representation of what is in it.
I found the original recipe here on Pinterest. I changed a few things up but used the dressing she had. It kept fine for the week in the fridge. I did set it out a few minutes before having to pour it because some of the oil solidified while it was cold. Bringing it back to room temperature helped it to liquefy. It will keep just fine in a sealed jar for the week.
During the week, I ate this salad with no protein. Sometimes I’ll prep chicken for the week, but this particular week I did not. On Saturday I was working all day at Wisteria and knew I’d need some protein to keep me full until dinner. I only had frozen, breaded chicken tenders on hand, so I baked two of those, cut them up, and put them into the salad. I would recommend a grilled chicken or something to make it healthier, but it was pretty tasty with the chicken tenders. 🙂
Recipe
Salad Ingredients:
- 1 cup Quinoa
- 2 medium Sweet Potatoes
- 1-2 TBS olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Spinach- fresh
- Dried Cranberries
- Dressing (recipe here)
- Protein of your choice
Dressing Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
- 1.5 TBS Dijon Mustard (NOT regular mustard)
- 1 tsp Dried Basil
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 Clove Garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup Olive Oil
- 1 large lemon (3 TBS of juice)
Directions:
- Preheat over to 450. Dice the sweet potatoes, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast for 15 minutes. Flip the potatoes then return to oven to continue baking 10-20 more minutes.
- Rinse quinoa through a fine mesh sieve. Combine quinoa with water or stock in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover for 15 minutes or until the water has absorbed. Turn off heat, set aside, and leave covered for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove lid and fluff with a fork.
- While everything is cooling, prepare the dressing. Whisk together the red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, basil, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while briskly whisking. Whisk in the lemon juice last. Store in a jar and put in fridge while you finish the salad.
- You would also want to be preparing any chicken or protein you planned to add.
*If you are serving this as a side to your main course:combine quinoa, sweet potatoes, spinach, and cranberries in a large serving bowl and pour on the dressing. If you plan to have leftovers, let everyone dress their own salad so that you don’t make everything soggy as it sits in the fridge until you eat the leftovers.
*If assembling containers for weekly meal prep lunches like I did:
- Set out five containers and (once everything is cool) distribute the quinoa and sweet potatoes among them. Also distribute the chicken if you’ve chosen to add it.
- Top each with cranberries and a handful of spinach leaves (can chop spinach if you would prefer it that way)
- Close up the lids and store in the fridge until ready to eat.
- Each morning at about 7:00, I would spoon the dressing over my salad, pack it in my lunchbox with ice packs, and it would be perfect by my lunchtime which is 11:00.
It’s a tasty little salad that keeps you full and is filled with some good stuff. Let me know if you try it and how you make it your own. The original recipe called for avocados, but I knew that wouldn’t last all week, so I left them out. I also think it would be good with your favorite bottled vinaigrette and would make it that much easier to prep.
Happy cooking!
