Make nutritious weekday lunches ahead of time when you meal prep this healthy and colorful Chopped Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad. This simple salad recipe is a 30-minute meal and a great way to save money and fuel your body with nutritious food.
Do you meal prep for weekday lunches?
Healthy lunches are important to help get through busy workdays or school days, but sometimes packing a healthy lunch before heading out the door in the morning can feel like a struggle. Preparing ingredients ahead on Sundays can make packing your weekday lunches a breeze. Packing your own lunch is a great way to not only save money, but to also fuel your body with nutritious food. It doesn’t have to be anything super crazy either. With meals, simple is better! It makes cooking less intimidating and time consuming, which means it’s more likely to become a habit.
This Chopped Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad is made with shredded carrots, cabbage, sugar snap peas, cilantro, green onions, and quinoa, tossed in a delicious, creamy peanut sauce. It’s completely vegan, gluten-free, and is super easy to make ahead of time. It even tastes better the next day as the flavors marinate together!
Why quinoa salad?
Quinoa is an amazing gluten-free grain that’s high in protein. It’s one of the few plant foods that contain sufficient amounts of all nine essential amino acids. It is also high in fiber, magnesium, B vitamins, iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, Vitamin E, and antioxidants. With the colorful raw veggies as well as the healthy fats from the peanut butter, this is a perfectly well-balanced meal. If you want to up the protein content even more, you could add chicken, tofu, or tempeh on top. The recipe yields four servings, but is easy enough to double if needed.
The beauty of these ingredients is that they’re so incredibly versatile. You can easily chop up extra veggies or make extra quinoa and toss them in a different dish or salad for a completely separate meal. The key is to find vegetables that you enjoy eating! Making lunches ahead of time will be such a time saver during the week, and a money saver too!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 cup shredded purple cabbage
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup chopped sugar snap peas
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/2 cup chopped green onion
- 1/4 cup hemp seeds
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 lime, juiced
Instructions
- First, cook the quinoa. In a medium-sized pot, combine the rinsed quinoa and 1 ½ cups water. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer the quinoa until it has absorbed all of the water. Approximately 15 minutes.
- Remove the quinoa from heat, cover the pot and let it rest for 5 minutes. Uncover the pot and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Set it aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, make the peanut sauce. Whisk together the peanut butter and soy sauce until smooth (if this is difficult, microwave the mixture for up to 30 seconds to loosen it up). Add the remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth.
- In a large serving bowl, combine the cooked quinoa, shredded cabbage, carrot, sugar snap peas, cilantro, and green onion. Toss to combine, then pour in the peanut sauce. Toss again until everything it lightly coated in sauce. Lastly, add the hemp seeds.
- This salad keeps well, covered and refrigerated, for about 4 days.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: Use tamari as a soy-free soy sauce alternative.
We hope you love this Chopped Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad from SoFabFood Home Chef, Nicole from Living Well with Nic. If you enjoyed this simple and healthy recipe, you can find more like it by visiting our Salad Section. For daily recipe inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
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