Nutritious Eats

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Kale and Quinoa Salad {Gluten Free}

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Kale and Quinoa Salad with a honey-balsamic dressing is a great make-ahead dish to enjoy throughout the week. 

Kale and Quinoa Salad {Gluten Free}| Nutritious Eats

Hi friends, how was your Halloween?! I don’t share many family pics, since this is a food blog and all, but I can’t resist but share my cute bunch. I love seeing their costumes come together after weeks of deciding. My 3 year old ended up changing into his Ninja costume last minute, in a typical 3 year old fashion.

Halloween 2015-5

The town we lived in switched trick-or-treating to Friday night which ended up working out just fine since because we had nonstop rain, flash food and tornado warnings for most of the morning/day on Saturday. Overall it was a great evening with neighbors!

So since the hubby is working, my parents came to help out. They spoil me with loads of food from Costco and homemade dishes they brought from home, and they’ve been cooking too which is always a treat.

My mom made this kale quinoa salad that we all enjoyed (even my 1 year old) so I had her write up the recipe and here it is!

Kale and Quinoa Salad {Gluten Free}| Nutritious Eats

I love love having salads like this on hand because then you can create such a nice meal from them. For example, we had this and a tabouli salad my dad made…paired with a little cheese which made a delicious lunch.

This reminds me of a salad you’d find in the Whole Foods salad bar and a good salad bar is one of my favorite things.

Want to create your own salad bar salad? Just prepare one or two cold salads like this- maybe a grain and veggie or a bean salad, this one is delicious. Then do some additional meal prep such as cutting veggies, boiling some eggs, cutting some tofu.

When you’re ready to eat (or pack it up for lunch), you can assemble a big bed of greens, with whatever veggies you prepared, top it with some protein- like canned tuna or grilled chicken and/or the hardboiled egg, some hummus or avocado, olives. You get the point. Delicious, healthy and you won’t get tired of eating salad this way!

Kale and Quinoa Salad {Gluten Free}| Nutritious Eats

Salads are welcome this time of year due to all the treats, so if you aren’t currently getting those veggies in, make sure you are having them- at least 3-4 servings a day. A big salad like I described would probably get you 3 servings easily!

[Tweet “Easy Kale and Quinoa Salad, perfect to enjoy for lunches all week! “]

4.8 from 6 reviews
Kale and Quinoa Salad
 
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a super simple kale and quinoa salad to pack for lunches throughout the week
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • ~3 cups cooked quinoa (equals 1 cup dry quinoa)
  • ~10 cups chopped raw kale, stems removed
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • ¾ cup slivered almonds
  • For the dressing:
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 heaping tablespoon of honey
  • ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
  1. Mix quinoa, kale, cranberries and almonds in a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jar whisk together dressing ingredients until well combined (make sure honey doesn't stick to the bottom), then pour over quinoa mixture. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
Notes
The amounts of kale and quinoa can be adjusted up or down. I have done 2½ to 3½ cups of quinoa and 8-10 of kale and it works either way, it will just be a little heavier on the dressing with the lesser amounts.

Just as a reference, 1 cup uncooked quinoa makes ~ 3½ cups cooked.

 

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Comments

  18. Loved this recipe! Perfect amount of sweet and savory and very filling.
    Do you have the nutrition facts or at least an approximation?

    Reply

    • Thanks Heather, glad you liked it!! I can calculate next time I make it since there are so few ingredients. Normally I don’t due to the extra time involved. 😉

      Reply

  19. This was a great salad. I added chick peas and walnuts (since I was out of almonds). We love quinoa and kale together and this is a versatile salad!

    Reply

  20. I made this but had to make some adjustments. I didn’t have cranberries, so I subbed chopped up prunes. Didn’t have slivered almonds, so I subbed chopped up salted almonds and I added chopped red onion, because. Everybody had second helpings even my husband who is a meat and potatoes guy. I served it with roasted pork loin and carrots, zucchini and yellow squash sautéed in butter. It was delicious! Keeping this recipe for sure!

    Reply

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