This salad is SUPER basic, but I literally ate it every day last week and will happily be eating it again all this week, so I think that alone makes it worth sharing. The great thing about this Spinach Chickpea and Quinoa Salad is that it holds up extremely well in the fridge and is super versatile. This is a great salad to just keep on hand to build different meals throughout the week, or to just eat as a quick bite when you’re short on time.
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How Long Does This Quinoa Salad Keep?
This salad holds up surprisingly well in the refrigerator, about four days, give or take some depending on the freshness of your ingredients and conditions inside your refrigerator. If you plan to make this salad ahead and eat it throughout the week, just keep the dressing separate and add it just before serving.
Can I Use Other Grains?
This salad is super versatile. You don’t have to use quinoa, in fact I’ve made this salad using other grains, like brown rice. You could even use cooked pasta. Just about any cooked grain or small pasta will work in place of the quinoa, so have fun!
Make it a Meal
This Quinoa Salad is more than just a side dish. To add variety to this salad throughout the week, try topping it with a hard or soft boiled egg, adding some grilled chicken, tofu, or even chopped lunch meat.
Spinach Chickpea and Quinoa Salad
Servings 4 about 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa (or other grain) ($0.94)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.26)
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar ($0.10)
- 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.02)
- 4 cups fresh spinach ($0.80)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes ($1.99)
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas ($0.55)
- 2 oz. feta ($1.50)
Instructions
- While your quinoa (or other grain) is cooking, prepare the vinaigrette so it has a few minutes for the flavors to blend. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. Set the dressing aside.
- Roughly chop the spinach into smaller pieces, then place them in a large bowl. Slice the tomatoes in half, then add them to the bowl with the spinach. Rinse and drain the chickpeas, then add them to the bowl. Lastly, crumble the feta over top. Give these ingredients a brief stir until they’re combined.
- Allow your quinoa or grains to cool slightly, or just to the point where it’s no longer steaming. Add the warm quinoa to the salad and stir to combine. The heat from the quinoa will slightly wilt the spinach.
- Finally, drizzle the dressing over top and stir briefly once more. Serve the salad immediately, or refrigerate up to 4-5 days.
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Equipment
Nutrition
How to Make Spinach, Chickpea, and Quinoa Salad – Step by Step Photos
This salad starts with two cups of cooked quinoa, or other grain or pasta. Quinoa only takes about 15 minutes to cook, so I simply cooked my quinoa while I prepared the rest of the salad. You’ll want to let your quinoa (or other grain) cool slightly before adding it to the salad, but it’s okay if it’s still quite warm.
While your grain is cooking, prepare the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk together 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/8 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and some freshly cracked pepper. Set the dressing aside so it has time to blend.
Chop about 4 cups of fresh spinach. I say four cups, but fresh spinach is very hard to accurately measure. Thankfully, this ingredient is very flexible in the salad, so don’t stress about it. I ended up using about half of this 10 oz. bag from Kroger.
Also slice 1 pint of grape tomatoes in half, rinse and drain one 15 oz. can of chickpeas, and crumble 2 oz. of feta. Stir these together briefly.
Finally, add the warm quinoa. Make sure it’s not still steaming hot, but you do want it to be slightly warm so that it will just barely wilt the spinach. Stir everything together.
Finally, drizzle the dressing over top, and give it a stir one more time.
And that’s it! And I swear, the salad looks exactly the same after four days of refrigeration, which is AWESOME. I love being able to just grab the container, fill a bowl, and have a healthy meal ready to go. :)
Lunch is served!
Just made this tonight and I am SO happy with this recipe!!!!! I had Kale from the garden, so I used that instead of spinach and tossed in some cucumber and red onion. Y.U.M.
I’m eating this right now and it’s AMAZING! I made mine with barley as the grain, because I had a quinoa salad for my lunches last week and needed a break from good old Q. Anyway, this salad is so good and so easy to make. The dressing is to die for! I’m already thanking my past self for making a double batch. I like to layer my salads in mason jars and store them in the fridge, they keep really well all week stored like that. I also keep my dressing separate, but that’s just a personal preference. Thank you for another great recipe!!
Literally eating this right now and it’s so good I’m compelled to leave a comment immediately. I added some capers (because I’m obsessed and always have them on hand) and topped the bowl I’m eating with some avocado and diced cucumber. It is SO delicious and super simple to whip up. Excited to have this for lunch next week!
oh. capers….yes!!!!
Love love this salad and my addition of toasted walnuts took it over the top!
QuinWOW! Just made this and love it. I doubled the vinaigrette (because I know me…). That by itself is a treasure, so adding it to this dish is like a baptism in deliciousness. And it makes my tummy happy :). Thank you once again!
Hahaha I love everything about this comment. :)
I absolutely loved how it turned out!!! This will be a go to now for my lunches
This is very similar to a salad I often make! Except I do a honey mustard vinaigrette. Going to try this version for sure.
That sounds good!
I know you said it looks the same 4 days later… but spinach? With dressing? I’m having a hard time believing!
What’s your secret? ;-) I really want to know because this looks awesome.
I’ve been thinking about that too and I think it’s a combination of two things: there isn’t a LOT of dressing and I think the grains help regulate the moisture level some how and keeps everything from getting soggy. And don’t forget, the spinach is kind of half wilted from the heat of the cooked grains to begin with.
Looks delicious! I’ll be trying it with farro. as well.
This looks amazing, and so versatile! I’m still getting used to preparing dishes with quinoa…will one cup dry result in two cups cooked? Or a different ratio? Thanks so much for your blog. I’m a frequent flyer here and love your recipes!
Quinoa actually almost triples when cooking, so you’ll only need about 1/3C dry.
Or cook 1 full cup and use the rest for other things :)
I would estimate about 2/3 cup dry would make about 2 cups cooked. I just went ahead and cooked 1 cup quinoa dry and I had about 1/3 of it left over after measuring out my 2 cups of cooked for the salad.
Nice recipe to make for lunch this week
Would barley work?
Sure! Barley is great in cold salads.
Also thankful for the office lunch idea ! Will be back :-)
Do you know the nutritional info?
This looks amazing. You’re giving me inspiration on what to bring to lunch to work, so I’m going to give this recipe a try!!! :-)