Today I am so excited to be teaming up with Rubbermaid to announce my latest recipe creation. Chickpea Quinoa Salad Meal Prep! That’s right. This go-round I have decided to showcase Rubbermaid’s lightweight, portable meal prep containers. I’ll show you how to make 5 fabulous and healthy meals that are vibrant, nutritious, and very satisfying. Each meal comes with a bed of chopped romaine piled high with fluffy quinoa, protein-rich chickpeas, roasted root vegetables and dressed with a creamy almond dressing that is out of this world delicious. To complete the meal, I am also offering an herbed coconut yogurt dip. It comes together in minutes and is the perfect sauce for any vegetable crudité.
As for the containers? Well, I love them because they are reusable, top-rack dishwasher safe, BPA-free and they have microwave-safe bases for reheating. By prepping and storing meals ahead of time, it’s much easier to reach for a healthy meal. These containers come in assorted shapes and sizes to fit any snack, side, or meal. The other plus is that these containers stack easily to of course save space in the fridge or cabinet. Click here to learn more about these containers and where you can buy them.
I’ve streamlined this recipe to make things as easy and effective as possible. In the first place, you prep the root vegetables. I call for sweet potatoes and carrots but you could also use parsnips or russet potatoes. While these are roasting in the oven, you make the quinoa on the stovetop. Once cooked, you throw in the chickpeas and set them aside until ready to assemble.
While the quinoa is cooking, the dressing and dipping sauce can be made. The creamy almond dressing is slightly sweet and savory and jam-packed with healthy fats from raw almonds and raw tahini. The coconut yogurt dipping sauce is made up of thick coconut yogurt, lime juice, and freshly chopped dill and mint. You could use whatever herbs you like or have on hand! I recommend serving this with some sliced cucumbers, purple daikon radish, and celery for the crudité, in addition to some steamed green beans. I like their texture and flavor. In addition, for dessert, seasonal citrus it is! But you could also use dates, sliced apples, or grapes. Just a little something sweet to round out the whole dining experience.
Then the best part? This meal is absolutely delicious cold, which makes it ready to go at any time. I personally love making this meal to bring on a picnic, as the lids click securely, but I also love having them ready to go in the fridge for a quick and easy lunch. Hope that you enjoy this recipe and also I look forward to seeing what you think! I want to give a big thanks to Rubbermaid for sponsoring this post. If you do make this recipe, please tag me on the gram and leave a comment below. Happy cooking!
Roasted Root Vegetables 2 pounds of root vegetables (sweet potatoes and carrots), cut into fry shaped wedges Quinoa Creamy Almond Dressing ½ cup raw almond butter Herbed Coconut Dipping Sauce 1 ½ cups thick coconut yogurt Roasted Root Vegetables: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Place root vegetables on a sheet pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and rice vinegar. Mix well and roast for 30 minutes. Quinoa: In a large pot, sauté shallots in olive oil with a few pinches of salt and pepper until softened. Add quinoa, salt, pepper, water, and rice vinegar. Mix well. Bring to a rolling boil. Once at a boil, turn heat down to lowest setting, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Once cooked, stir in chickpeas, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to stand covered for 5 minutes to finish cooking the quinoa. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Creamy Almond Dressing: In a bowl, whisk together almond butter, tahini, rice vinegar, miso paste, tamari, toasted sesame seed oil, agave nectar (or maple syrup), lime juice, and water. If you'd like to loosen the dressing, add a few splashes of water and mix. Herbed Coconut Dipping Sauce: In a bowl, whisk together coconut yogurt, dill, mint, lime juice, and a few pinches of salt and pepper to taste. Assembly: For the salads, divide chopped romaine into 5 containers. Then divide the quinoa chickpea mixture and roasted roots evenly. Drizzle with dressing and garnish with a slice of lime and freshly chopped parsley. For the coconut dip, disperse evenly into 5 smaller containers with a divider. Add veggies. For dessert, add desired fruit into smaller containers. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days and enjoy. 
Ingredients
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons avocado oil (or refined coconut)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 shallots, diced (about 1 cup)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon cayenne
2 cups quinoa
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1½ cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can, drained and rinsed)
3-4 romaine hearts, rinsed and chopped (for salad base)
Fresh lime and parsley, to garnish
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon miso paste (red, mellow, or chickpea)
2 tablespoons tamari
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar (or maple syrup)
1 tablespoon lime juice
¼ cup water, plus more if needed
¼ cup fresh dill, chopped
¼ cup fresh mint, chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
Thinly sliced radish, for dipping
Sliced cucumber and celery, for dipping
Steamed green beans, for dipping Instructions
Add sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and cayenne. Continue to stir to toast the seasonings and seeds.
This blog post is sponsored by Rubbermaid. All opinions are my own.
5 comments
This looks so yummy. I have never been to your site before and was looking through an older Hot for Food Youtube and decided to check your site out. The one question about this recipe is I cannot seem to find an amount for the chickpeas. Did you use a can?
Hi! Thank you for being here. Oh goodness, you got me!! I totally forgot to add this to the ingredients list. I used 1 ½ cups which is also one can of cooked chickpeas. You could use more if you’d like!
Many thanks. I love your flavour combinations, they are different from my normal go to. Cannot wait to try more.
Gonna cook this tomorrow. One question. Rice vinegar is listed twice under the quinoa ingredients. Does the 1T go with the veggies and the 2T with the quinoa, or vice versa?
Good catch! Just fixed this by moving that 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar up with veggies. And then, yes there is an additional 2 tablespoons in the quinoa! You could also use plain vinegar, as well! Thanks for pointing this out and happy cooking.