Southwestern Quinoa Salad Ingredients

Here’s all you’ll need to grab to whip up three lunch portions of this salad!

Quinoa – we’ll divide 2 cups of cooked quinoa evenly between our 3 salads. Quinoa adds healthy carbohydrates, protein, fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants to this meal. It’s definitely an ingredient you don’t want to skip!

Red Bell Pepper – we’ll dice 1 red bell pepper to add to our salad. The bell pepper not only adds a pop of color + crunch, but also a good dose of veggies!

Diced Chicken – 2 cups of diced chicken gets added to the mix too! Pro tip: buying rotisserie chicken saves SO MUCH time!

Corn Kernels – is it even a southwestern dish without corn?! You can use frozen (just thaw first) or canned for this recipe.

Black Beans – a ½ cup of black beans brings flavor and some *extra* protein to your lunch! If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, feel free to replace the chicken with more black beans!

Cilantro – we’ll give the cilantro a rough chop and toss it in too.

Green Onion – thinly sliced green onion adds great flavor to this dish!

Avocado – the avocado won’t go in our salad until we’re ready to eat it, but it’ll add some healthy fats to keep us satisfied.

Lime Juice – 3 tablespoons of lime juice goes into our salad – freshly squeezed is the best, but if you only have bottled, that’ll work too!

Avocado Oil – a couple of tablespoons of avocado oil (sub with olive oil if needed) will help our salad to stay moist while adding a dose of healthy fat.

Salt + Pepper – the only seasoning we need! A couple pinches of salt + a pinch of pepper will get the job done.

two rectangular glass containers filled with southwestern quinoa salad side by side on a marble surface

How to Make Southwestern Quinoa Salad

Making this quinoa salad is SO easy, and basically just a chopping and tossing situation. Here’s how you’ll do it:

Cook the Quinoa – we’ll use 1 cup dry quinoa and 1 1/2 cups of water to get our 2 cups of cooked quinoa. For the low-down on perfect, fluffy quinoa, check out click HERE.

Dice the Chicken – if you’re using rotisserie chicken, dice the breast meat into ½ inch chunks. If you aren’t using rotisserie chicken, you’ll just need about 2 cups of diced chicken breast.

Dice the Bell Pepper – dice the pepper into ¼ inch pieces, and…

Chop the Cilantro + Green Onion – …give the cilantro a rough chop + slice the green onions!

Rinse the Beans + Corn – thoroughly drain and rinse your black beans and corn (if using canned).

Assemble – toss the quinoa, chicken, bell pepper, corn, black beans, cilantro, lime juice, avocado (or olive) oil, salt, and pepper together and divide equally between 3 containers. When you’re ready to eat, mix ⅓ of a diced avocado into your salad and enjoy!

How to Store Southwestern Quinoa Salad

Keep your meal prepped salads in airtight containers (we like this same-sized glass set) in the fridge. They’ll stay good for 5 days this way! If you need a storage solution for your avocado (since you’ll only use about ⅓ of the avocado at a time), these work great to keep your already cut avocado fresh!

We hope this Southwestern Quinoa Salad ups your lunchtime game! Enjoy!