This Crunchy Kale Salad with Couscous is perfect for food prep. Throw it together on Sunday and enjoy for a quick, healthy lunch or dinner all week long.

Hi friends!

I whipped up this Crunchy Kale Salad with Couscous this weekend after eating something similar at one of our favorite restaurants. You guys know that I’m typically more of a fan of prepping food components and putting them together each day to make quick meals. But this week I wanted to change things up. I’m still trying to play catchup after being sick and we have a couple of busy days so I decided to just make myself a couple of meals ahead of time that I can just pull out and eat quickly without doing any work during the week.

To make my life even easier, I started with a bagged salad kit – a mix of kale, romaine and cabbage because I liked how everything was pre-washed and chopped. However, next time I’ll likely just prep my own kale and mix it with a bag of broccoli slaw or coleslaw because I didn’t even use the dressing and some of the toppings included in the salad kit.

Crunchy Kale Salad with Couscous

This is a flexible salad so you can really customize it to your liking. Here are a few choices:

Star with a base – Aim for a mix of kale and something crunchy like cabbage, broccoli slaw and/or romaine
Choose a grain – I used tri-colored couscous. You could also use something like farro.
Pick a protein – I used chicken that I cooked in the Instant Pot. Grilled chicken or steak would also be good, as well as chicken sausage
Add more veggies – peppers, roasted sweet potatoes and tomatoes are what I had on hand but carrots, onions etc would work too
Top it off – I added Craisins and apple for a little sweetness and some candied pecans for crunch. Sliced almonds would also be good.

To tie everything together, I whipped a Maple Mustard Vinaigrette but you could use whatever homemade or store-bought dressing you like best.

Here’s the recipe:

Crunchy Kale Salad with Couscous

This Crunchy Kale Salad with Couscous is perfect for food prep. Throw it together on Sunday and top with your favorite protein for a quick, healthy lunch or dinner during the week.

Author: Lindsay
Prep Time: 20 min
Total Time: 20 min
Yield: serves 4 1x

Scale

Ingredients

8–10 cups kale mix (chopped kale mixed with broccoli slaw/cabbage/romaine etc)
1 cup uncooked tri-color couscous (or other grain of choice)
2 cups diced sweet potato
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 pound cooked chicken (or other protein like steak, chicken sausage, etc)
1 large apple, diced
optional: Craisins or dried cherries, pecans or almonds

1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2–4 Tbsp avocado oil

Instructions

Cook couscous according to package directions and let cool.
Roast sweet potatoes and let cool.
Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined.
In a mason jar combine mustard, vinegar, syrup and 2 Tbsp oil. Shake vigorously until well combined. Taste. Add a pinch of salt or more oil or maple syrup if desired.
If prepping ahead of time, store salad in a ziploc bag with air removed and dressing in a mason jar. Combine when ready to eat.