Make this copycat Costco Quinoa Salad recipe at home for a healthy, hearty, and delicious grain-based salad studded with fresh veggies and fresh lemon dressing.
Table of Contents
Costco is famous for bulk bargains, an amazing wine selection, and delicious pre-made foods, including this quinoa salad. Calling this dish a salad seems like a bit of an injustice.
Just like my Chicken Quinoa Salad and Cauliflower Chickpea Salad with Quinoa, this salad is hearty enough to make a full meal!
The base of quinoa, brown rice, and lentils is loaded with vegetables, herbs, and a sweet and tangy lemon dressing for a fresh and filling dish that’s vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free!
While there are a few ingredients to bring this dish together, everything is low cost and easy to find. Even if you’re not a Costco member, you can still enjoy the flavors of their famous quinoa salad with this easy and budget-friendly copycat recipe.
Ingredient notes
- Quinoa – The Costco salad uses white quinoa, but you can use any variety you prefer for this salad. When making your quinoa, rinse it well to remove the saponins that can add a soapy and bitter taste to your dish. I like to make my quinoa in the instant pot or in my rice cooker.
- Brown rice – If you don’t have brown rice, you could substitute with white rice or even farro (but note that farro will add a thicker texture to the dish).
- Lentils – You can use red, green, or brown lentils for this recipe. The original Costco recipe adds in mung beans, but they can be difficult to find. Lentils taste very similar to the mung beans in this recipe. I like to cook my lentils in the instant pot.
- Red bell pepper – Can substitute for another sweet pepper like yellow or orange.
- Tomato – Use a large garden tomato or one to two Roma tomatoes.
- Cucumber– Don’t worry about peeling the cucumbers unless the skin is very thick and waxy, then you may want to peel some of it away gently with a vegetable peeler.
- Kale – Baby kale has a softer texture than full-sized Lacinato kale.
- Herbs – Fresh parsley and chives.
- Oil – Use extra virgin olive oil or another light finishing oil for the dressing.
- Lemon juice – While fresh lemon juice works well, you can also substitute bottled if that’s all you have.
- White wine vinegar – If you don’t have white wine vinegar, you can substitute champagne, apple cider, or red wine vinegar.
- Sugar – White table sugar.
- Salt and pepper
How to make it
Step 1
Combine the ingredients
- Add the cooked rice, lentils and quinoa to a large bowl.
- Gently stir in the cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, kale and cilantro until combined.
Step 2
Make the dressing
- In a smaller bowl whisk together the sugar, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice and salt.
- Pour the dressing mixture over the vegetables and gently toss until everything is coated.
Step 3
Season and serve
- Taste and adjust seasonings with additional lemon juice, salt and pepper, to taste, then cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
- For best results, refrigerate the salad for 30 minutes before serving.
How to serve it
While you could eat this recipe on its own for a light vegetarian lunch or snack, it also pairs well with these recipes for a complete and balanced meal!
How to make ahead and store
You can make this recipe ahead of time to enjoy throughout the week. Cooking the quinoa, rice, and lentils ahead of time and chopping the vegetables make assembling this recipe quick and easy. Once prepared, just store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days.
Recipe FAQs
This Costco quinoa salad is incredibly healthful with whole, high-protein grains, lentils, and fresh vegetables and herbs.
If quinoa is not rinsed well it can have a bitter soapy taste because of the saponin residue that sticks to the outside of the quinoa grains.
This quinoa salad is best cold and can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.
More quinoa recipes
If you loved this salad recipe, you’ll love these other quinoa dishes:
- More → 35+ BEST quinoa recipes
More copycat recipes
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Full Recipe
Copycat Costco Quinoa Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1 ½ cups cooked lentils (red, brown or green)
- 1 red bell pepper (seeded and diced)
- 1 large tomato (diced)
- 1 medium cucumber (diced)
- 1 cup baby kale (chopped)
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 2 Tablespoons chives
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Add the red pepper, tomato, cucumber, kale, parsley, and chives and toss gently.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
- Taste and adjust seasonings with additional lemon juice, salt and pepper, to taste.
- For best results, refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.
- Enjoy!
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