These Healthy Meal Prep Bowls SCREAM summer! I’m hitting you with one of my healthy meal prep ideas today so you can prepare everything ahead to take stress out of your week. Chickpeas, quinoa and plenty of veggies make this a super easy healthy meal prep recipe.
We have crunchy fresh cucumber, cherry tomatoes that taste like they ripened in the sun in my dad’s garden, quinoa, cold chickpeas, soft and salty feta, spicy and crunchy red onion and the most delicious lemon tahini dressing EVER! Healthy lunch meal prep has never been easier!
Healthy Meal Prep Bowls for Work
I love making healthy lunch bowls for my work week because they keep my energy up and help me keep mood swings at bay.
I cook chickpeas in my Instant Pot once a month and freeze them in 2 cup portions so they are easy to just take out and throw in my meal prep bowls for work. I cook quinoa in my instant pot, too. Quinoa cooked in the instant pot tastes out of this world!
Quinoa, chickpeas and fresh crunchy vegetables are the perfect combination of taste and texture. Plus, they are super nutritious!
Get in your protein with the chickpeas and feta, your carbs with the quinoa and as always, fill half your plate with veggies. Top it all with an out of this world Lemon Tahini dressing that brings summer to your lunch time. Healthy Meal Prep Bowls for Work….easy peasy lemon squeezy! That’s just one recipe though, the healthy Meal Prep Ideas are endless.
The key to a healthy diet: meal prepping
I know you are probably tired of hearing it time and time again here on Green Healthy Cooking. I will talk about it incessantly though. The key to “sticking to” a healthy diet is meal prepping. Healthy Meal Prep Bowls are the solution to avoiding eating unhealthy.
For more healthy lunch ideas check out my healthy lunches e-book :) And for advice on what lunch containers are the best for taking your healthy meal prep bowls to work, check out this post and scroll to about the middle.
Healthy Meal Prep Bowls Video
Healthy Meal Prep Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 large English cucumber
- 24 cherry tomatoes
- 1 small red onion
- 7 oz cubed feta - (200g)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp tahini
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Cook quinoa as instructed on package or cook it in the Instant Pot by preheating the instant pot with the "sauté" button, then once hot add a splash of oil and the quinoa and toast it for a couple minutes. Then, add water and sea salt, and immediately put on lid and seal. Make sure the venting knob is set to sealing. Press "cancel" and then "manual" and set the Instant Pot to 1 minute on high pressure. Then wait for natural pressure release (about 15 minutes).
- In the meantime, wash and cut vegetables and divide all ingredients in 4 parts and add to 4 large bowls.
- Prepare salad dressing my mixing lemon juice, tahini, honey and olive oil in an airtight container and shake until well combined.
- Once quinoa is cooked, let cool and then divide into 4 parts and add to bowls.
- Immediately refrigerate and take 1 bowl to work with about 4th of the dressing. Add dressing to bowl minutes before eating.
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Chelsy says
Great recipe the dressing is too much oil though – you get the oil from tahini and the olive oil… needs something else
Melanie says
Looks delicious – is there an alternative to tahini?
Lorena Grater says
any nut or seed butter will work
Alina says
This is one of my favorite meal prep recipes and my husband loves it too! Thank you for posting this!
Bec says
Wow. This was my first meal prep to try and it was great. I so loved being able to reach into my fridge for a healthy meal and this was very filling. I did cut back on the olive oil since the tahini I used seemed to have a lot of oil in it. Also I used your recipe for quinoa in the Instant Pot and it was a success. Thanks!
Kassie says
This was delicious – except for the dressing. So much olive oil – that was all I could taste. The rest came to get her well and was delicious. Thank you for the basic idea, I’ll just work to adjust the dressing to my taste.
Lorena Grater says
Hi Kassie, did you use just 1/4 of the dressing per bowl? Not the whole dressing for one single bowl? There are strong and mild olive oils. I always choose mild extra virgin olive oils. A brand that I particularly like is “Bono”.
Sherly Demosthenes says
Which brand of tahini would you recommend?
Lorena Grater says
I don’t know where you live. Here in Montreal I buy a brand called “Nuts to You” but from what I understand that’s a Canadian brand and not available in the US? Any brand that offers natural tahini, i.e. tahini made from nothing but sesame seeds. No other additives.
Courtney says
Delicious dressing, very easy and healthy. Perfect for meal prep. Thank you!
Angelica says
This looks amazing but how do you cook chickpeas in the instant pot and/or slow cooker?
Lorena Grater says
I soak chickpeas overnight, then drain and rinse, then add to the Instant Pot barely covered with water and cook for 15 minutes on high pressure + full natural pressure release.
Julie says
This was an excellent make ahead lunch. I enjoyed eating it all week at work. Next time I’m going to try roasting the chickpeas.
Anita J. Norton says
Yum yum) Looks very tasty. I’ll take this recipe for attention. Many thanks!
Charlene says
First off, the meal itself is beautiful. Secondly, it was super easy to make!! Last, it was DELICIOUS! Very filling (didn’t even finish it all) and I substituted the red onion with red pepper because I’m not too big on raw onion. Otherwise, a perfect healthy meal. Thank you!
Lorena says
You are very welcome :) I’m so happy you enjoyed it!!
Grazina says
Looks yummy and healthy but the recipe would be more useful if it described a different way of preparing chickpeas and quinoa (for weirdos like me who don’t have the Instant Pot).
Lorena says
I state in the recipe to cook quinoa “as instructed on the package” OR “in the Instant Pot”. If you don’t have an Instant Pot cook it as instructed on the package you bought it in. The recipe also asks for “cooked chickpeas”. I’m informing about the possibility to cook them in the Instant Pot but you can use canned, cooked in a pot, cooked in a slow cooker, whichever way is your favorite. But you are right, I definitely deserve 2 stars for a recipe you haven’t tried.
Mandy Knowles says
Good one LOL! Can’t rate a recipe if you haven’t tried it. I’m doing this meal prep tonight it seems delicious. Canned Chickpeas and Ready made Quinoa :)
bridget.n2d says
Lorena, five stars for your reply to a ridiculous comment! It seems our manners and common sense have not kept pace with technology. Thank you for posting your delicious recipes!