Kale Quinoa Salad is a delicious make-ahead salad with kale, quinoa, parmesan, walnuts, golden raisins, and a tangy lemon vinaigrette! Ready in just minutes, it’s great for weekly meal prep!
Why this Kale Quinoa Salad recipe works!
Kale Quinoa Salad is so easy to make and can easily keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s a great salad to have for weekly meal prep.
This salad also serves as a great base for a grilled protein like chicken or salmon. Because it doesn’t wilt, you could even add warm ingredients and toss and serve.
The lemony dressing is the perfect way to dress up this hearty salad. And the raisins and walnuts add a tasty crunch and texture.
You’re going to love this simple and delicious superfood salad. Give it a try today!
How to Make Kale Quinoa Salad
To make the salad, you will need quinoa, kale, parmesan cheese, golden raisins, and walnuts. To start, you will need to cook and cool the quinoa according to package instruction.
Next, remove the hard spines from the kale leaves and chop up the kale for the salad. While mosts bagged kale comes chopped, you will want to search it for any hard spines that may have been left on. (I like to keep my kale bites small, so I usually chop up even the bagged kale.)
Place the quinoa, kale, parmesan, raisins, and walnuts in a large salad bowl. Then, prepare the dressing by whisking together the lemon juice, oil, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper.
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Pour the dressing over the salad tasting as you go. This salad gets better with time so let it sit for at least an hour before serving.
Recipe Substitutions and FAQs
Kale Quinoa Salad is a great salad to make even if you don’t have all of the ingredients on hand. Check out these great recipe substitutions and make a batch today!
- Golden raisins: I love the mild soft flavor of golden raisins in this salad. However, you could substitute regular raisins, dried cranberries, or even dried cherries.
- Parmesan: The parmesan gives the salad a salty bite. You could swap out the cheese for feta, pecorino, or omit it altogether.
- Walnuts: Nuts give salad a delicious crunch. Here you could substitute the walnuts for almond, pecans, pistachios, or omit them.
Kale Quinoa Salad can be made in advance. Ideally, you want to make this salad and let it sit at least an hour before serving. Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
Kale pairs perfectly with a lemony dressing. Make a quick dressing by whisking together equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Make this salad for the week and serve along with Make-Ahead Greek Chicken.
Kale Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa, uncooked
- 1 10 ounce bag kale (or one bunch, chopped)
- ¾ cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- ½ cup golden raisins
- ½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
Dressing:
- ½ cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook quinoa according to package directions. Set aside to cool.
- Roughly chop kale, being careful to remove any hard stems. Add kale, cooled quinoa, parmesan, raisins, and walnuts to a large bowl.
- Make the dressing: whisk together all dressing ingredients.
- Toss together the dressing and salad and refrigerate at least an hour before serving. Salad can be made up to a day in advance.
Notes
- Golden raisins: I love the mild soft flavor of golden raisins in this salad. However, you could substitute regular raisins, dried cranberries, or even dried cherries.
- Parmesan: The parmesan gives the salad a salty bite. You could swap out the cheese for feta, pecorino, or omit it altogether.
- Walnuts: Nuts give salad a delicious crunch. Here you could substitute the walnuts for almond, pecans, pistachios, or omit them.
- Serve with grilled chicken or salmon for a complete meal.
Made this today and this recipe is a keeper!
I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins; I don’t particularly care for them. I loved the textures and flavors, but even though I love parmesan cheese, I’m not sure it belongs in this recipe, Next time I’m going to try it without or perhaps try it with Feta. Either way, easy and delicious recipe!
Happy you liked the recipe! Feta would be a delicious addition 🙂