Mega Crunchy Romaine Salad with Quinoa
This irresistible salad is modeled after Trader Joe's "Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite." It's light but filling, and healthy. Gluten free and vegan, too!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on July 9, 2024
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See that salad? I just ate leftovers for breakfast. After my annual too-many potato chips session at the lake with my family, I’m craving fresh, bright, satisfyingly crunchy things. Surely I am not the only one!
I really want to tell you all about Oklahoma, and how the trees shrink into broccoli florets and the dirt turns red on that familiar drive south on I-35. I want to tell you about meeting my newest cousin and how she let me hold her for over an hour (maybe I hogged her a bit). And how extra-cute Cookie is after a few days apart. She’s snuggled up under my right elbow now.
I just got the manuscript back for my cookbook, so I have a busy week of editing and drinking too much coffee ahead of me. I can finally see the finish line. I’m excited to wrap it all up and get back to hanging out with you guys in the comments and on Instagram. I’ve really been missing you.
Anyway, this salad is inspired by one that I reached for at Trader Joe’s a couple of weeks ago. They call it the “Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite.” I grabbed one of the last ones before they closed, so it wasn’t quite as crunchy as it should have been, but I recognized the potential.
Here is my version of the Trader Joe’s salad, which is not a dead ringer, but close. My salad features chopped romaine, radishes, carrots, toasty sunflower seeds, quinoa and dried cranberries.
This salad is a big, colorful bowl of healthy, crunchy goodness. It packs great for lunch, if you just store the zippy cilantro-lime dressing separately. Salads are pretty much all I want to eat this time of year, so I’ll be back with more salads soon.
Watch How to Make Perfectly Fluffy Quinoa
Mega Crunchy Romaine Salad with Quinoa
This irresistible salad is modeled after Trader Joe’s “Mega Crunchy Salad with a Bite.” It’s light but filling, healthy, and bursting with fresh flavors. This salad packs great for later; just store the dressing separately and toss just before serving. Recipe yields 4 medium-sized salads.
Ingredients
Salad
- ⅔ cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- 1 ⅓ cups water
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
- ½ teaspoon olive oil
- 1 small head of romaine (about 11 ounces) or one 5-to-6-ounce bag of romaine, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup shredded carrots (I used 2 large carrots, turned into ribbons with a julienne peeler and roughly chopped)
- 1 cup chopped cabbage (green or purple) or broccoli slaw
- ½ cup chopped radishes
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Zippy cilantro dressing
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lime juice (about 2 medium limes)
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- ¼ cup lightly packed fresh cilantro
- 2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
- 2 medium cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle chili powder or regular chili powder
Instructions
- To cook the quinoa: Combine the quinoa and water in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat a bit to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water, about 10 to 15 minutes. Reduce heat as time goes on to maintain a gentle simmer.
- Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let the quinoa steam for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, and set aside to cool.
- To toast the sunflower seeds: Combine the sunflower seeds and olive oil in a medium skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently (careful, they’ll burn), until the seeds are fragrant and starting to turn lightly golden on the edges. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- In a large serving bowl, combine the prepared romaine, carrots, cabbage, radishes and cranberries. Once the quinoa and sunflower seeds have cooled, add them to the bowl as well.
- To prepare the dressing: In a blender or small food processor, combine all of the ingredients and blend well, pausing to scrape down the sides as necessary. Taste, and adjust as necessary—it should be zippy, but if it’s overwhelmingly tart, add a bit more honey. If you’d like a little more kick, add another ¼ teaspoon chili powder.
- If you’ll be serving the salad all at once, drizzle in enough dressing to lightly coat the salad once tossed (you might not use all of it), and toss to combine. If you intend to have leftovers, store the salad separately from the dressing, and toss just before serving.
Notes
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey.
Change it up: This salad is really flexible. You could use your greens of choice instead of romaine (if using kale, which will hold up better to the dressing, be sure to remove the tough ribs and massage it before adding it to the bowl). You can also change up the chopped veggie components—you need about 2 ½ cups total.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
This is yet another great salad recipe! I have your book and use it all the time. I’d really love another one that contains just all your amazing salad recipes.
Thank you, Rachel!
I made this salad over the weekend. It was delicious!!
Great! Thanks, Jannell.
Mmmm. This salad is so amazing. So glad I found your website. You’ve really let me up my salad game.
I’m glad you found it too,Emily! If you would like to leave a star review, I would appreciate it.
Could I use one of your other dressings with this salad? I was never a huge fan of lime and cilantro. Thanks!
Sure! Use your favorite dressing, Jenna.
Loved it ! Nice crunch.Very tasty dressing.
Thank you for sharing, Esther!
How can I make the dressing without oil??
Hi Lisa, I don’t have a non-oil variation. Sorry!
I just loved the flavor and texture of this salad! I’ve tried several cilantro lime dressing recipes in the past and this one turned out the best by far. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
You’re welcome, Jenny!
I’m in love with this salad. Could eat it every day. Thanks for sharing, Kate.
The dressing is fab. i only used 1tsp honey and it was perfect. superb!!! so garlicky and zingy.
Thank you, Rebecca!
This salad was wonderful. Added some avocado.
Avocado would be great with this!
This salad is so good! I had to use lemon juice instead of lime but it was delicious!
I love this recipe! It’s perfect for the hot summer days like today here in Germany. I improvised a little bit and added toasted walnuts instead of sunflower seeds, and half a cup of fried chickpeas for some extra crunch and naughtiness.
Can I just say…. you are the queen of salad dressings. This one and the Sunshine Salad Dressing are just absolutely incredible!
This salad was so so good– I added julienned summer squash since I had some leftover from a farmer’s market haul and it was great.
Definitely going to make once a week!
Thank you for this genius recipe. My husband and I are on an intermittent fasting program, so for our dinner tonight I adjusted the quantities of the higher-calorie ingredients to get us down to 320 calories/person, leaving the vegetable amounts the same. It made for an incredibly tasty and satisfying meal. I was out of herbs and added a tablespoon or so of minced red onion for a little bite.
This was truly delicious! Whole family enjoyed(even kiddo who doesn’t like carrots). Dressing was incredible and we will make it again and again! Made exactly as recipe stated. Did make a large portion, kept well with dressing kept separately. Thank you, Kate!
I made this the other day. TOTAL LAZY PERSON here. I made the quinoa in my rice cooker. I used pre-bagged/shredded purple cabbage and carrot and bagged chopped romaine. I only had cashews but they were great. The dressing is amazing. It’s bright and interesting. My friends loved this salad and some of them are big-time foodies. I would make again but you could virtually pick any lettuce/vege combo you like. The dressing is the keeper.
Thank you for your review! I like how you made this a quicker option, Tamara.
Truly one of the Best salads I have tried and the dressing was a level above. Thank You!!!
Hi there – I’m excited to be making this recipe but have a quick question. The ingredient list says “3 Tbsp lime juice (about 2 medium limes)” I get a lot more than 3 tablespoons from 2 limes, so just trying to figure out if I should use just 3 Tbsp or more. Any advice? Thank you!
Hi, if your limes are bigger or have more juice, then go with the 3 tablespoon measurement. I hope you love it!
Outstanding! The taste of toasted sunflower seeds in every bite. The dressing is my favourite ❤️salad dressing of yours!
Thank you, Tamara!
I loved this salad – it totally satisfies my need for crunch, and I love the sweetness of the cranberries with the tart lime. I cooked chicken on the side for my carnivores to add. This salad is going on repeat this summer!
That’s great to hear, Coby! Thank you for your review.
Ate variations of this salad two nights in a row in an attempt to work through my CSA greens. No cranberries, so I used chopped dates/ trail mix.
I made the dressing with garlic scapes instead of cilantro (and no added garlic) and it was still delish.
That’s great! Thank you for your review.
Oh my gosh, how do I love SALAD this much?!? Another perfect C and K recipe. I had to make substitutions because I’m away from home with my youngest child, so had to rely on a small grocery store delivery service and things that were already stocked in the pantry. I used baby Kale instead of romaine, pistachios instead of sunflower seeds, a chopped up Larabar instead of cranberries, and white wine vinegar instead of rice vinegar. I usually wouldn’t review a recipe if I substituted, but I think I kept to the spirit of the dish and it was TOO GOOD not to share. The play in textures between the crunchy vegetables/nuts and quinoa was great. The contrast of the sweet dried fruit and the tangy dressing was amazing…..the dressing was amazing, period. The whole salad was amazing and just what I needed this week. Thanks Kate!!
Three times in a row my iPad reloaded this page and erased my comment before I could hit “send”. Awesome recipe! Love you! Love your stories! Love Cookie!
Wonderful to hear, Jennifer! Thank you for your review.
I love every recipe you do, this one is a winner as well. I didn’t have cranberries or chili powder, so I did no cranberries and did cayenne instead and turned out great. This is my new favorite salad recipe for weekday lunches.
I love to hear that, Spencer! Thank you for your review.
I’m one of those people that just doesn’t love cilantro. What could us replace the cilantro with for the dressing?
You could omit or try parsley. Let me know what you think!
This dressing is great for taco salad…Another winner!
Great to hear, Jennife!
I love this salad! That dressing is everything. I paired this with some sliced chicken and it was a delicious dinner! Can’t wait to make it again.
I made this today and had the first serving for lunch. The other 3 servings will be lunch for the next 3 days. Do you have a calorie count for a serving? I’m counting calories.
Hi! The nutritional information is below the notes section. I’m happy you enjoyed them!
This is SO good and easy. I made without eh quinoa so my husband and boys would eat it. Crunchy and delicious.