Cold Chicken Quinoa Salad with Ranch Dressing Is My New Favorite Lunch

Few things make me feel quite as aspirational as the healthy pantry food section of the grocery store. All those neat rows of dried lentils, beans, and quinoa inspire me to want to make fresh, healthy, cost-effective meals and eat them every day, so I’m always looking for easy recipes that fit that description. This chicken and quinoa salad with ranch dressing and avocado fits that bill perfectly, with the added benefit of being extremely fast and easy to make.

You can use your favorite bottled ranch dressing, but you can also make your own (and this recipe shows you how it’s done). With the dressing made, all that’s left to do is to cook the quinoa and arrange it in a bowl, then top that with some baby spinach, tiny tomatoes, sliced avocado, and shredded cooked chicken. (You can use leftovers, or just shred some off a grocery store rotisserie chicken.) Once your bowl is assembled, just drizzle it with the ranch dressing and eat it right away.

This sort of chicken salad is perfect for meal-prepping, too. If you want to make the salad in advance, the author suggests waiting to slice the avocado and dress the salad until you’re just about ready to eat it, but all the other ingredients can be combined in advance and stored together until you’re ready for lunch.

Get the Recipe: Ranch Chicken Quinoa Salad from Salt & Lavender

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