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Salad is my go-to packed lunch when I go to the co-working space. It was my regular lunch when I worked in an office too. It sounds like it’s a pain, but when you have a Sistema salad bowl and a Built NYC insulated lunch bag, it’s incredibly easy to pack a salad and keep it from fresh and crunchy until your lunch break. I share more on that in a minute. I prefer to bring my own salad so I can be sure I’m not getting any unintended gut irritants (i.e. hidden garlic and onions) in my food.

Unfortunately, salad isn’t always a filling enough lunch for me, regardless of how many healthy veggies I cram into it. I put together this low FODMAP quinoa, bacon, and cabbage salad with the aim of both being an easy to pack lunch and one that fills me up enough to keep me from snacking through my afternoon.

So what’s the secret to making my low FODMAP quinoa, bacon, and cabbage salad so filling? That would be the quinoa. Yes, the cabbage helps too, but it’s really the quinoa that makes the low FODMAP quinoa, bacon, and cabbage salad keep me full until dinner. Once this salad makes you a quinoa convert, you’ll want to try this quinoa and herb salad (use only the green parts of the scallions and use half an avocado for Low FODMAP), and this quinoa oatmeal too (swap out the honey for maple syrup for low FODMAP).

Tips for Packing the Low FODMAP Quinoa, Bacon, and Cabbage Salad Salad To-Go

You’ve heard the saying there’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate attire? Well, the same goes for packing a salad for lunch. Your goal is to keep the salad fresh and crunchy until you are ready to eat. You accomplish this by keeping your salad dressing separate from the salad until you’re ready to eat. The rest of the salad components aren’t going to add much moisture to the salad and are fine to have assembled in the bowl.

I use this Sistema salad bowl (affiliate link), which comes with a salad dressing container that fits securely into the ice pack top. I carry it in a Built NYC lunch bag (affiliate link) that’s big enough for the bowl plus a small swell bottle of ice tea or another beverage of choice. No worrying about spilling your dressing, or about forgetting to put your lunch in the refrigerator. And best of all, you get a seriously healthy and tasty lunch that will make your coworkers jealous.

If you can’t find the LiveFree low FODMAP salad dressing at your grocery store, you can order it on Amazon (affiliate link). You could also try using this low FODMAP spicy thai chili sauce as a dressing.

Low FODMAP Quinoa, Bacon, and Cabbage Salad

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 1

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 Cup cabbage, shredded
• 1 Cup iceburg lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 Cup quinoa, cooked and cooled
• 1 egg, hard boiled and diced (If you like your boiled eggs a little softer, like I do, that works well here too!)
• 8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 strips bacon, cooked until crispy, cooled and crumbled
• 1 TBSP Feta cheese, crumbled
• 3 oz chicken breast, roasted and cubed (I seasoned mine with Casa de Sante's lemon herb seasoning)
• 1 TBSP low FODMAP ranch dressing (I used LiveWell foods' ranch salad dressing.

Instructions

 

• Put cabbage and lettuce into your bowl and top with quinoa and remaining salad ingredients other than the salad dressing.
• If packing your salad to go, place the salad dressing into a separate sealed container.
• Add salad dressing to salad and toss to combine (or cover to-go salad bowl with lid and shake to combine).

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!