Delicious plant-based Chopped Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad with a tasty peanut dressing. Perfect for a light lunch or dinner and tastes even better the second day! Super healthy, and high in fiber and protein. This simple salad recipe is a 30-minute meal and a great way to save money and fuel your body with nutritious food.
Prepare as much as you can ahead of time.
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 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 salad tastes even better the second day.
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 high in protein and one of the few plant foods that contain sufficient amounts of all nine essential amino acids. It is also high in fiber, magnesium, B vitamin, 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.
Want to see me share this salad on Twin Cities Live? Watch here!
Chopped Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 cup Quinoa uncooked
- 2 cups Water
- 2 cups Purple Cabbage shredded
- 2 cups Carrots shredded
- 1 cup Sugar Snap Peas
- ½ cup Green Onions
- ¼ cup Hemp Seeds
Dressing
- 6 Tbs Peanut Butter can sub any nut butter
- 4 Tbs Coconut Aminos can sub soy sauce
- 1 Lime juiced
- 1 Tbs Rice Wine Vinegar
- ½ inch Fresh Ginger minced
- 1 Garlic Glove minced
Instructions
Quinoa
- To cook quinoa, add 2 cups water and 1 cup quinoa to a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil.
- Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 13-15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from heat and fluff quinoa with fork; place in large bowl and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. You should have a little over 2 cups of quinoa.
Dressing
- To make dressing, add peanut butter, coconut aminos, lime, rice wine vinegar, white miso paste (if using), ginger, and garlic to a mixing bowl and whisk together. Add water to thin out to a pourable consistnecy.
Salad
- Next fold in cabbage, carrots, pea pods, green onions and hemp seeds to the quinoa. Pour dressing on top and combine thoroughly.
What is the name of the coconut aminos you used for this recipe?
Hi Donna! I use a brand called “Coconut Secret” that you can order online or find a Whole Foods.
on Twin Cities Live you mentioned using almond butter. Are you using that instead of peanut butter? I’m confused
You can use peanut butter or almond butter! It will turn out the same 🙂 Some people prefer one over the other.