Sweet Pineapple Chicken Quinoa Salad
A light and healthy quinoa salad tossed in a flavorful spice mix, and loaded with healthy wholesome ingredients like grilled chicken, salted pistachios, and shredded coconut!
We have been on a clean eating kick around here… (something about summer and fresh, wholesome ingredients go hand in hand – things are more simple and fresh ingredients speak for themselves) and I must say, this quinoa salad has definitely been the most glorious and protein-rich of all the dishes we have made. Honestly, if all quinoa salads were like this, eating healthy would never be an issue.
This wonderful salad definitely has the WORKS. So many textures… and so many flavors!!!
It’s meant for people, like me, who love all the fixings. Think tons of crunchy nuts, sweet dried pineapple, fluffy quinoa, flaky coconut, zesty cilantro, and spiced with dried herbs, I indulged on this for 3 days straight and it has quickly become a favorite at our house!
We’ve made it for a potluck, served it as a side dish at a cookout, a grab-and-go lunch, and even as light dinner. And the fact that it’s so easy to make, automatically makes it taste even better!
This fresh, healthy salad is perfect when the temperature start to rise; it’s so refreshing and there’s little work involved. Hey! You could even take it to the pool for a healthy lunch while you watch your kids!
Sweet Pineapple Chicken Quinoa Salad
A light and healthy quinoa salad tossed in a flavorful spice mix, and loaded with healthy wholesome ingredients like grilled chicken, salted pistachios, and shredded coconut!

Ingredients:
- 4 cups water
- 2 cup uncooked quinoa
Spices:
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
Add-ins:
- 4 cups fresh arugula, roughly chopped
- 2 cups cooked chicken breast, chopped (canned, rotisserie, or grilled all work well)
- 1 1/2 cup shelled, whole pistachios
- 1 cup chopped green onions
- 1 cup fresh cilantro, rinsed and finely chopped
- 1 cup chopped dried pineapple
- 1 cup dried cherries, roughly chopped
- 1 cup flaked, unsweetened coconut
Directions:
- In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 12 minutes, or until water is completely absorbed.
- Transfer quinoa to a large bowl and allow to cool for at least 5 minutes. Add the spices to quinoa until mixed.
- Add remaining ingredients (add-in) until well evenly distributed.
- You can serve this at room temperature or cold. If serving more than 2 hours after preparing, store in the refridgerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
This looks incredible! Just my kinda meal….and so perfect for running refueling!
Yes!! 🙂
Hi Jen and Emily,
This salad looks terrific. I love all the different textures and the addition of cumin really makes a difference, I’m sure. Thanks for a great summer recipe!
Thanks Robyn…..it is one of our favorites! We keep it on hand all the time!! Hope you try it and enjoy it <3 Jen
This is such a gorgeous salad! Your photos are amazing and I love all the components of the salad! Especially all that dried pineapple 🙂 Pinned!
Thanks Chelsea!! 🙂
I love shredded coconut but have never tried having them in my salad. This might be a good day to start trying it out! Thanks for sharing this!
We’re coconut fans too!! You have to try it 🙂
Thanks for this recipe! It turned out well and we really enjoyed it! It was a perfect summer meal. Can’t wait to try the Mango Coconut Quinoa Salad next. 🙂
Hi Monika! We’re so, so happy to hear you tried our quinoa salad! I have a feeling you will love the mango, coconut salad too 🙂
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Can you use regular pineapple, instead of the dried?
You definitely can! I have never done this, but I would imagine it would make the salad a little less sweet.
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I’m super excited to give this a try! We are trying to eat healthier this month while we get bikini ready for vacation in June. This looks perfect! I’m featuring it on my blog today as an alternative to boring chicken dinners! Thanks so much for sharing and I can’t wait to report back as to how my super picky husband liked it!
Yay!! It’s definitely a favorite! Hope you like it 🙂
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Thank you for sharing this extremely flavorful salad recipe! Every bite is like summer!
We enjoyed it so much, I shared it yesterday with my blog readers on Pin It! Tried and True Tuesday. 🙂
https://theuncommonpearl.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/sweet-pineapple-chicken-quinoa-salad/
Awesome! Thank YOU so much for sharing!!
I just made this salad. It it delicious! I will make it again and again. Thanks!
Yay! Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you for this recepit is so good. By any chance do you know how many calories is per serving?
Sorry – no, I do not but I don’t think it would be too hard to enter the ingredients into a calorie calculate – hope you enjoy the recipe.
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I just made this it’s absolutely amazing…so delicious.
So happy to hear!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Made this with fresh fruit instead of dried fruit. Turned out awesome! And really tasty! Great meal to celebrate the first day of summer!
This was delicious! I used craisins instead of dried cherries since that’s what I had in the house, subbed pepitas for the pistachios because of nut allergies (still got a great crunch), and served over romaine rather than arugula. This was tasty and refreshing!
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Hosting book club and would love to make this the day before. Do you think it holds up well and is actually better the second day? Thinking about adding arugula the day of?
Yes! That would work!
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This looks insanely delicious!!!! Unfortunately I am allergic to all nuts except almonds. Trying to decide if almonds would be a weird substitution for the pistachios or if I would be better off leaving the nuts out entirely!
If you did slivered or sliced almonds, I think that would work! I might add a little bit more salt because the pistachios add some salty flavor that you might miss – but otherwise I think that would be fine!
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