Tex Mex Quinoa Mason Jar Salad
Published 8/26/2020 • Updated 8/8/2022
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These Tex Mex Quinoa Mason Jar Salads are perfect to take to work or on a lovely picnic. They are packed with veggies, protein, a fresh and delicious flavors!
Healthy Mason Jar Recipes
Who else is into mason jars? We love to use mason jars for literally everything. They are great for meal prep, food storage, and even for shaking up protein shakes!
We use mason jars for our overnight oat recipes, salad dressings, and smoothies! Mason jars are also a great vessel for mason jar salads like this Tex Mex Quinoa Mason Jar Salad!
Ingredients You’ll Need
In reality you can really put any or our healthy salad recipes in a mason jar. However, this tex mex quinoa jar is the perfect salad for a mason jar because it’s made with hearty ingredients that can be stored for a couple of days!
Here’s what you need!
- Greek yogurt
- Rice vinegar
- Cilantro
- Lime
- Salt + pepper
- Olive oil
- Minced garlic
- Ground cumin
- Quinoa
- Black beans
- Corn
- Spinach
- Tomatoes
- Avocados
Meal Prep Salad Tips + Tricks
Layering is Important
When you are making your mason jar salad, where you put each ingredient is important. For example, you want to pour your dressing in first so it sits at the bottom of the jar so it doesn’t make all of the ingredients in your salad mushy!
Start with the dressing and go up from there! Check out the image below these tips and tricks for a visual on how to build a mason jar salad!
How do you choose ingredients for your mason jar salad?
You want to choose ingredients that last in a meal prep container in the refrigerator. We chose spinach, quinoa, beans, and corn because they are all hearty ingredients that tend to keep better in the refrigerator!
The only ingredient in this salad that you should wait to add until right before eating is the avocado!
Mason Jar Ingredient Substitution
If you don’t have every ingredient you need for this mason jar salad, below are some great substitution options!
- black beans –> garbanzo beans
- corn–> chopped carrots
- spinach–> romaine lettuce
- quinoa–> rice
- tomatoes–> roasted sweet potatoes
How do I eat a mason jar salad?
You can shake up your mason jar salad in the jar or you can pour it into a bowl, mix and enjoy it that way, too!
Healthy Salad Dressing Recipes
One of the best parts of this salad is the tangy and delicious dressing! Forget store bought dressing and make your own! This dressing is tangy, limey, creamy, and smooth!
All you have to do is stick all the ingredients for this dressing in a food processor and blend! We used greek yogurt to cream it up, cilantro for a bright flavor, and spices to bring it home!
dressing options!
Don’t feel like a cilantro lime dressing? Check out all of our healthy salad dressing recipes and use whatever dressing recipe you want!
Healthy Salad Recipes
Tex Mex Quinoa Mason Jar Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the Dressing
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup cilantro
- 2-3 tablespoons lime juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
For the salad
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 cup black beans
- 1 cup corn
- 4 cups fresh spinach
- 1 large tomato, chunked
- 2 large fresh avocados, chunked
Instructions
Dressing
- Place all ingredients in a small food processor. Process until smooth.
- If the salad dressing is too thick, add a bit more vinegar. If the salad dressing is too thin, add a bit more greek yogurt.
- Set aside for later.
Salad
- To assemble your salad, Layer your mason jar with about 3 tablespoons of dressing at the bottom of the jar.
- Then, add a handful of spinach, 1/4 cup of tomatoes, 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup corn, and 1/2 avocado, sliced! Repeat with four different mason jars.
- Place mason jars in the refrigerator and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Awesome recipes!!! I too use this type of jars for smoothies. Your recipes are so nice and healthy. Great!
How long does the dressing keep in the fridge? Thank u
If you put the spinach in right after the dressing, do you run the risk of the spinach getting soggy? All the mason jar salad recipes I have seen they tend to put the lettuce at the top of the jar.
I’m not sure if I’m just missing something but what size mason jar did you use? I’m very eager to try this but I want to make sure I have the right size. 🙂
This was really delicious. Th dressing was outstanding!
Glad you loved it!
Where is the recipe for the tangy cilantro lime dressing? Please, very excited to try this!
Hi Lysa! I was having issues with my recipe plugin for my site, but things should be back to normal now!