Description
Brighten up your plate with this vibrant, flavourful Thai Quinoa Salad with Red Curry Chicken. Crunchy and full of texture, it’s great for bringing excitement back to your desk lunches, or for sharing with a crowd.
Ingredients
Scale
For the chicken:
- 454g boneless skinless chicken breast, uncooked
- 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 tbsp olive oil, avocado oil or melted coconut oil
For the rest:
- ¾ cup uncooked quinoa + 1 3/4 cup water
- 1 cup each diced cucumber, spiralized or julienne-cut carrots, and shredded purple cabbage
- 3/4 cup sliced sugar snap peas
- 1 each red and yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced radishes
- 2 thin green onions, very thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
- 1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
- ½ cup toasted cashews
- lime wedges, for serving
For the cashew lime dressing (you may have some leftover):
- ¼ cup cashew butter
- 2 tbsp each rice vinegar and low-sodium tamari or coconut aminos
- 1 tsp minced or grated ginger
- juice of 1 lime
- water, to thin as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Whisk together the curry paste, lime juice and oil until smooth. Pour the mixture into a resealable bag or container and add the chicken. Toss to coat as evenly as you can, pressing the paste into the chicken.
- Transfer the chicken to the baking sheet. Bake for ~30-40 mins, or until no longer pink inside.
- Meanwhile, boil the quinoa in water for ~15 mins, or until liquid has absorbed and grains are puffy.
- In a very large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients for the salad. Stir in the quinoa.
- Whisk together the dressing, adding water if needed to thin. (Note it will thicken when stored in the fridge, but can easily be made ahead of time.)
- Pour the dressing over the salad. When the chicken is fully cooked, let it rest for about 5 minutes before slicing into strips. Toss them into the salad, aiming to coat everything as evenly as possible with dressing.
- Serve immediately with lime wedges to garnish (optional), or divide into 4 portions and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Notes
If you’d like to make this a meal and add volume, feel free to toss in even larger quantities of the veggies listed above, or serve the recipe on top of lightly-dressed shredded greens.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
- Category: salad
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: Thai