Quinoa Bean Salad Recipe (Meal Prep)
with l'épicier
- Preparation 20 min
- Cooking 20 min
- Servings 6 to 8
- Freezing I do not suggest
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🥗 THE lunch salad for your whole week!
Looking for a cold lunch that keeps you full until dinner? This is it. Quinoa cooked in broth, mixed beans, bocconcini, lots of crunchy veggies and a lemon vinaigrette that wakes everything up. It’s good, it’s easy, it’s delicious. Make it on Sunday and your lunches are done for the week!
🍋 Everything in the bowl, and it’s ready
No need to let it sit in the fridge. I toss everything together, mix, and eat right away: it’s great as is. The pumpkin seeds, though, wait until the very end so they stay crunchy.
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🍚 Fluffy quinoa
For 1 ½ cups of quinoa, I use 2 ¾ cups of broth: it comes out fluffy, never mushy. And always rinse it before cooking, or better yet, soak it for 30 minutes: it removes the bitterness.
❄️ Cool the quinoa fast
Spread it on a baking sheet and put it in the fridge. In fall or winter, you can even put the sheet outside, well covered. It cools down in no time.
🌱 Seeds, plain and at the end
I didn’t toast my pumpkin seeds, I kept them plain, and they were really good. Add them just before eating. For your lunches, put them in a small separate container: they stay crunchy until noon.
🍗 Even more protein
For an even more filling lunch, add pieces of my BBQ meal prep chicken thighs. They’re made for it.
🧊 Toss before eating
After 3 or 4 days, the tomatoes and cucumber release a bit of water at the bottom of the container. No big deal: toss the salad before serving. It keeps up to 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container. I wouldn’t freeze it.
📅 Make-ahead prep
The day before, cook your quinoa and let it cool on the baking sheet. Make your vinaigrette in the Mason jar, chop your veggies and store everything in labelled containers. The next day, you toss it all together in two minutes, and the seeds wait in their little jar until serving.
✅ What to serve with my quinoa bean salad recipe
It’s a meal on its own, but for a deluxe lunch, add my BBQ meal prep chicken thighs and a few marinated mini-bocconcini. And if you love meal salads, try my Greek salad with quinoa or my orzo salad with bocconcini and pesto.
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Quinoa
- 1 ½ cups (375 ml) quinoa
- 2 ¾ cups (680 ml) vegetable broth
- 1 pinch salt
Vinaigrette
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- Juice and zest of 1 large lemon
- 1 tsp (5 ml) Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp (5 ml) maple syrup
- 1 small garlic clove, grated
- ½ tsp (2 ml) dried oregano
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Salad
- 1 can (19 oz / 540 ml) mixed beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup (250 ml) mini or English cucumber, diced
- 1 orange bell pepper, finely diced
- 1 pint (283 g) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 French shallot, very thinly sliced
- 200 g bocconcini (fresh mozzarella balls), halved
- ½ cup (125 ml) fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- ¼ cup (60 ml) pumpkin seeds
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Preparation
- Rinse the quinoa under cold water in a fine-mesh strainer, or soak it for 30 minutes, then drain well.
- In a saucepan, combine the quinoa, broth and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- Spread the quinoa on a baking sheet and let it cool in the fridge.
- In a Mason jar, whisk together the oil, lemon juice and zest, mustard, maple syrup, garlic and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.
- In a large bowl, combine the cooled quinoa, beans, cucumber, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, shallot, bocconcini and parsley.
- Pour in the vinaigrette and toss gently to coat.
- Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds just before serving. For lunches, keep the seeds on the side and add them when you eat.
Too much liquid and skipping the rinse. For 1 ½ cups of quinoa, I suggest 2 ¾ cups of broth, 15 minutes covered on the lowest heat, then 5 minutes off the heat before fluffing. And always rinse or soak the quinoa first.
Yes. Rinse it under cold water in a fine-mesh strainer, or soak it for 30 minutes. It removes the bitter coating on the grains.
Up to 4 days in an airtight container. Keep the pumpkin seeds on the side and toss the salad before eating, since the veggies release a bit of water.
Yes, no problem. Feta makes a saltier salad, bocconcini a softer, creamier one. Use what you have in the fridge.
Yes. One can of chickpeas or black beans, rinsed and drained, does exactly the same job. This salad is super easy to change up.
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