This quinoa avocado salad is a delicious and hearty bowl full of stress relieving foods! It’s drizzled with a zesty cocoa vinaigrette.
Survey: when’s the last time you felt stressed? Is it right now? Was it at work, when a client came to you with an unrealistic deadline? Or at home when your kiddos are refusing to nap to give you some peace and quiet? Life is full of potentially stressful situations. But did you know there are stress relieving foods that can help? This quinoa avocado salad bowl is full of stress relieving foods: keep reading for the recipe!
Related: 10 Easy Quinoa Recipes
What are stress relieving foods?
At one point in my life I got myself a pile of stress management books. Ironically, it was stressful to figure out how to find time to read them! While I didn’t make it through all of the books, I do remember learning that we have the power to control our reactions to stressors. I was used to being reactive, hoping that my increased heart rate and inability to draw boundaries would magically vanish one day when there were somehow no more stressors in my life. Perhaps once this or that in my life fell into place, I would no longer be stressed. So…that un-stressful time in life? It hasn’t happened yet. But the lesson that has stuck with me: not only can we learn to recognize our stressors, we have power over our reaction to them.
Fast forward to a few months ago. Our friend Katie, a Integrative Nutrition Health Coach passionate about nutrition, came to us with a challenge. Could we create a recipe with the best foods to eat in times of stress? She gave us a list of ingredients, Chopped-style. Of course, we couldn’t resist the challenge, and especially the tie in to replenishing nutrients in times of stress! Here are a few of the stress relieving foods she gave us to work with (which resulted in this quinoa avocado salad):
- Avocado
- Raw cacao
- Almonds
- Citrus: orange or lemon
- Cauliflower
- Greens: spinach or kale
How to make this quinoa avocado salad
What did we come up with for our Chopped challenge with stress relieving foods? We created this quinoa avocado salad bowl! For this quinoa avocado salad recipe, start with a large, deep bowl: add greens, quinoa, protein (nuts, seeds, beans, tofu), various raw and cooked vegetables, and a tasty dressing. As with any quinoa bowl, we focused on incorporating a variety of colors and textures.
Whether it’s the huge bowl or the explosion of flavors and textures, but we couldn’t get enough of this quinoa avocado salad! The most unique element is the cocoa vinaigrette dressing. Using raw cacao and orange, it adds an earthy complexity to the salad that made us thoughtfully savor each bite. If you don’t have raw cacao, you can use cocoa powder instead. This quinoa avocado salad is a colorful, cheery bowl meal that makes you feel like a million bucks — and the quinoa makes it filling enough for a main dish. Even better, it’s full of stress relieving foods! So it’s a stress reducer too.
Step it up a notch! Make this salad with Grilled Avocado.
Stay tuned for later this week where Katie will share in a new Healthy + Whole post more about foods to eat in times of stress and stress coping techniques. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you — how do you manage stress?
This recipe is…
This stress relieving quinoa avocado salad is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant based, dairy free, naturally sweet, and refined sugar free.
Looking for bowl meal recipes?
Looking for bowl meal recipes? Aside from this stress relieving quinoa avocado salad, here are a few of our favorites:
- Veggie Burrito Bowls
- Chickpea Couscous Bowls with Tahini Sauce
- Vegetarian Cobb Salad
- Thai Salad with Peanut Sauce
- Baked Falafel Salad Bowl
- Superfood Salad
- Tropical Mango Salad with Grilled Shrimp
- Homemade Dolsot Bibimbap
- Green Goddess Tortilla Bowl Salad
- Go Green Bowls with Lemon Yogurt Sauce
- Vegetarian Quinoa Bibimbap Bowls
- Chickpea Fattoush Bowls
Stress Relieving Quinoa Avocado Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This quinoa avocado salad is a delicious and hearty bowl full of stress relieving foods! It’s drizzled with a zesty cacao citrus vinaigrette.
Ingredients
For the quinoa avocado salad
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 small head cauliflower
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- 2 carrots
- 1 yellow pepper
- 1 avocado
- 6 radishes
- 16 cups spinach leaves
- Kosher salt
For the cocoa vinaigrette (makes 1 cup)
- 1 orange (4 tablespoons orange juice + zest)
- 2 teaspoons raw cacao or cocoa powder
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa (or use our Instant Pot quinoa method): Place 1 cup quinoa in a saucepan with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low. Cover the pot, and simmer where the water is just bubbling for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the water has been completely absorbed. (Check by pulling back the quinoa with a fork to see if water remains.) Turn off the heat and let sit covered to steam for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring a medium pot of water to a boil and prepare a bowl of water with some ice cubes. Cut the cauliflower into florets. When the water is boiling, add the cauliflower and boil for 2 minutes, until just tender. Remove the florets and place in the cold water for 1 minute, then remove to another bowl.
- Make the dressing: Juice and zest the orange. In a bowl, vigorously whisk together all ingredients. Makes 1 cup; store refrigerated.
- Place ½ cup almonds a dry skillet and toast over medium low heat, shaking often, until toasted, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
- Peel the carrots, then cut them into long, thin strips with a vegetable peeler. Dice the pepper. Slice the avocado. Thinly slice the radishes.
- To serve, place spinach into large serving bowls. Top with the quinoa and vegetables. Sprinkle with kosher salt, then toasted almonds. Drizzle with the cacao citrus dressing (reserve unused dressing for future use).
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Quinoa Bowl, Avocado and Quinoa, Stress Relieving Foods, Quinoa, Cocoa Vinaigrette, Spinach, Greens, Healthy, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free
This looks amazing and I had no idea that all of these foods could help reduce stress. The fact that you made them all come together so flawlessly into one meal is very impressive! That cocao vinaigrette is genius!
The name of this recipe alone makes me feel calm and nourished. ;-) I really love how you brought all of these ingredients together in a bowl and topped with a special vinaigrette. Thanks for being up to the challenge!
That cacao vinaigrette has got to be the most creative dressing I’ve seen! It sounds so good. I’m definitely not stressed at the moment but certainly don’t need to be to eat a bowl like this! Yum!
Beautiful. Bowl foods really make the best kinds of meals, don’t they? Love this, it totally inspires me to get out there and eat fresh foods despite the busy med school hours! So thank you! :)
Right now I’m going through a lot of stress at work. I recently made a career change as a professional cook, and love what I do- and end up putting in way more hours than I intend to. I keep going back and forth, because I enjoy my work, and the more I learn now the more opportunities will be available later, but I worry that I’m prioritizing work over relationships- agh! I try to combat stress by getting together with friends, making regular dates with my husband, and staying healthy- which isn’t always easy working in restaurants. This looks like just the type of thing I like to make at home to combat the foie gras pancakes and whisky shots that sometimes happen at work.
This bowl is overflowing with nutrients and flavors! I love the cacao citrus vinaigrette! Looks amazinG!
Very intriguing idea! By the way I love the why, when, caveats info! :)
I could certainly use a bowl of this right now. Looks divine! And that dressing…yummm!
I made this bowl this weekend and it was so satisfying. The citrus cacao dressing is out of this world amazing, and I see myself making it over and over again. :) Thanks again for collaborating on this project…so fun!
Where do you get raw cacao?