I love a healthy quinoa salad to throw in the refrigerator for weekday lunches. I love this one because it has quinoa, veggies, feta cheese, and chickpeas for protein. We dress it in our homemade Meditteranean dressing for a light and zesty lemony finish. The end result is a salad you can easily customize, and make over and over again, any time of the year.

Quinoa Salad with Feta Cheese & Chickpeas

I’m a busy mom who loves to make a big salad for meal prep, and this recipe is perfect. One of my favorite Sunday past times is cleaning my house, turning on some good music, and chopping up my weekly haul from the farmers market for a nice big fresh salad. This salad is full of veggies, quinoa, feta cheese, and chickpeas for protein. I really like this recipe because the quinoa soaks up the vinaigrette, and has such a good flavor.

This is a great recipe to clean out your refrigerator. I like to use really crisp, good quality veggies! You can really mix and match as many vegetables as you like. Celery, chopped carrots, olives, green onions, corn (especially fresh off the cob!), beets, and broccoli would also work great in this dish.

Salad Ingredients:

Quinoa
Chickpeas
Feta Cheese
Arugula
Cucumber
Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh Parsley
Bell Pepper (any color)

Cooking Quinoa for Salads

Cooking quinoa is pretty easy. You can cook it on the stovetop, or you can bake it (my favorite method). The only time consuming aspect of this recipe is letting the quinoa cool after it cooks. If you don’t let it cool, you’ll risk the vegetables becoming mushy.

If you want to get a head start on this recipe, considering cooking the quinoa a day ahead. If you don’t have a day ahead, simply cook the quinoa, transfer it to a different bowl after cooking it (this helps lessen the heat!) and place it in the refrigerator until fully cooled.

Preparing Quinoa Salad

Place the chopped veggies in a bowl, along with the fully cooled quinoa, feta cheese, and chickpeas. I like to toss this salad with the dressing all in one fell swoop. The crisp veggies hold up pretty well and the quinoa does a good job at absorbing the dressing so it doesn’t become too soggy.

Make Ahead Tip: If you want to make this last through the week, I do recommend holding back on the arugula, as it can become wilted. An alternative to that is to layer the quinoa salad on the arugula. Easy!

Mediterranean Dressing Recipe

I love our Mediterranean dressing for this recipe, it’s simple to make, and the fresh bright flavor goes so well with the sharp bite of feta cheese. This dressing is a simple mixture of oil, vinegar, garlic, dijon, lemon, and oregano.

If you want to simplify and use a store bought dressing, here’s a couple recommendations.

Storing and Serving Salad with Quinoa

Storing: If you want to store this salad for the week, you can pre portion it into lidded containers for an easy lunch. If you want to leave it in a large batch, store it in a bowl with a lid, or plastic wrap. You can store this salad for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
Make ahead: If you’re making this recipe ahead of time, consider adding the arugula right before serving to keep it fresh. It can wilt if kept for too long.
Serving: This salad has a fair amount of protein already, but you could serve it with some chicken, or shrimp if you wanted to add more to it.

Want more recipes with quinoa? You might also like our quinoa skillet dinner, and our quinoa pilaf.

Did you make this recipe? I want to see! Tag us @laughingspatula on Instagram.

Hope you enjoy this one as much as we do! – Kathi and Rachel