Creamy Chicken Cashew Rainbow Salad
This creamy chicken cashew salad with homemade cashew dressing is fresh, vibrant, and incredibly easy to make. It’s the perfect way to use up leftover or rotisserie chicken, and it comes together in just 30 minutes, making it ideal for busy weeknights or quick lunches. Packed with protein, fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, this healthy salad truly has it all. With its bold flavors and satisfying crunch, it’s reminiscent of a Thai-inspired chicken salad—but even better.
Thanks to the high-protein chicken, fiber-rich quinoa, and a colorful mix of fresh veggies, this salad is hearty enough to enjoy as a complete meal. It’s filling, nourishing, and full of texture in every bite. Bonus: it’s family-approved! Even my young kiddos loved it. We turned theirs into fun salad wraps using our favorite tortillas, and my youngest was obsessed with the creamy cashew sauce—I had to make extra just for dipping.
I hope you and your family enjoy this easy, healthy chicken cashew salad as much as we did. Cheers!
Creamy Cashew Chicken Rainbow Salad
Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Serves: 4
Salad- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups water or chicken broth
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (from a leftover whole chicken or rotisserie chicken)
- 1 cup shredded green cabbage
- 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
- 1 cup grated/julienned carrot
- 1 cup grated/julienned cucumber
- 1 cup cooked edamame
- 1 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 1/3 cup finely chopped scallions
- 1/3 cup finely chopped cashews
- 1/4 cup cashew butter
- 3 Tablespoons reduced sodium tamari sauce (can sub with coconut aminos or soy sauce)
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
Preparation
- Rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh colander under running water. In a medium-sized pot, combine the rinsed quinoa and 1 ½ cups broth. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat, cover the pot and reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 12-15 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed the liquid. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- While the quinoa cooks add the remainder of the salad ingredients to a large bowl. Toss well.
- Using an immersion blender or stand blender blend together all the ingredients for the sauce. Taste for seasonings and adjust as needed.
- Add the quinoa to the bowl with all the salad ingredients. Drizzle with the dressing and toss again. Taste for seasonings and if needed add a touch of salt and pepper.
Notes
*Use this recipe as a guide and adjust measurements and ingredients as necessary. This salad keeps for 5 days in the fridge
I ate this every day for lunch this week and I’m still not tired of it; it is just that yummy. No cakes at the farmer’s market this time of year so I just skipped them and didn’t even miss them. Maybe next time. I’m thinking I might do the Hemp Seed Chicken salad next week. thank you as always!
woohoo!!! I love hearing this so much. Thank you for leaving a comment. Let me know if you try the hemp chicken salad. The hemp dressing is SO good. I actually just used that as a base to make a “special sauce” for burgers. Added tomato paste, smoked paprika, pickle juice and extra mustard. It turned out great for burgers. The sauce is very versatile with that base recipe!