Chicken & Black Bean Spinach Salad

The chicken & black bean spinach salad is a lunchtime power boost that will fuel you through the afternoon. It’s packed with veggies and tossed with a simple garlic-lime dressing. Prep the ingredients ahead of time for easy weekday lunches.

Every time I share a salad I feel this urge to over-justify its existence seeing as salads are seldom a go-to meal solution in my house and, as much as I want to sell it as so, salads don’t really fall into the “comfort food” recipe category.

CHICKEN BLACK BEAN SPINACH SALAD

DESCRIPTION

The chicken & black bean spinach salad is a lunchtime power boost that will fuel you through the afternoon. It’s packed with veggies and tossed with a simple garlic-lime dressing. Prep the ingredients ahead of time (see the notes for more details) for easy weekday lunches.

INGREDIENTS

For the Dressing

• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 small clove of garlic, minced
• 1 pinch each of kosher salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

For the Salad

• 4 generous cups of roughly chopped spinach
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 cup thinly sliced radishes
• 1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 8 ounces cooked chicken, diced (see note)
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 small avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced into quarters

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk the lime juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil together in a small bowl until combined.
2. In a large bowl, toss the spinach and cilantro together. Drizzle about half of the dressing over the greens and lightly toss them again to coat them in the dressing. Divide the greens between two serving bowls.
3. Top the greens with the radishes, black beans, chicken, and feta cheese. Place the avocado slices on the salad, drizzle each salad with the remaining dressing and serve.

NOTES

I like to cook the chicken ahead of time to make it easy to toss a salad together for lunch. To prepare the chicken, I pound it out to an even thickness (about a 1/2″ thick), season it on both sides with salt and pepper, and cook it on a grill pan on both sides until it’s cooked through, about 3 minutes on each side.

If you want to prep this salad ahead of time, cook and dice the chicken, chop the spinach, slice the radishes, and drain and rinse the black beans. You can also make the dressing ahead. Keep all of the components separate in the fridge until you are ready to make the salads. Add the cheese and avocado and it’s ready to serve.

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