Find out how to make one salad that will be your lunch for the entire week. No more sad desk lunches! This vibrant quinoa salad with rotisserie chicken and abundance of vegetables is going to get your through the work day keeping your stomach happy and satisfied.
I’ve been making salads like this one for the last couple of weeks. I prep the whole batch on a Sunday night and divide it up among 5 containers. Then each morning, I pop one of the containers out of the fridge, chop up some tomatoes and fresh basil from my garden, and head to work, counting down the hours until it’s lunchtime.
Quinoa, Chicken, and Kale Salad
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
8 ounces Lacinato kale, chopped
2 rotisserie chicken breast halves, diced
2 bell peppers, seeded and diced
4-6 rainbow carrots, peeled and chopped
1 English cucumber, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons salt
Daily add ins: chopped tomatoes, basil, avocado
Directions
1. Add quinoa and 2 cups of water into a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the saucepan and cook until quinoa is tender and all the water is fully absorbed, 15-18 minutes. I’m a fan of using red quinoa, but any variety will work here.
2. Cool quinoa lightly and mix with kale. This wilts and softens kale just the right amount without cooking it or leaving it entirely raw.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients. To be honest, I rarely make formal dressings. Instead, I drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the salad, add salt, and gently toss it together to incorporate. Be sure to taste. Add more lemon juice (sometimes I use rice vinegar) or salt, as needed.
4. Divide the salad among lunch containers and refrigerate. In the morning, add chopped tomatoes, diced avocado, and basil to the day’s lunch portion and head out to work.
As the salad hangs out in the refrigerator, the texture changes, but the ingredients never become soggy or inedible. Instead, cucumbers turn almost slightly marinated, while the kale softens further, and quinoa plumps up as it absorbs the dressing.
So, you guys! Make this salad and don’t have another sad lunch desk ever!
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