Costco’s pre-made meal section always has a few tempting salad options, and their newest offering is the Kirkland Signature Celery Grain Salad. As a salad lover, I couldn’t resist trying it. It looks packed with wholesome ingredients like chickpeas, quinoa, and crisp celery. But did it taste as good as it looked? Let’s dig in and find out!
Location in Store
This salad is located in the pre-made meal/deli section at Costco, near the Kirkland Signature Quinoa Salad and the Kirkland Signature Greek Salad. The item number is 12342.
Taste
I really enjoyed this salad, but my husband wasn’t blown away by it. It contains chickpeas, bulgur, quinoa, dried cranberries, celery, almonds, kale, onion, cabbage, and carrots. The dressing is a sweet apple cider vinaigrette made with apple juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, and maple syrup.
The salad has a nice crunch from the celery, cabbage, and carrots. The dressing is fairly sweet, so when combined with the dried cranberries, it gives the salad an overall sweet flavor — which I enjoy. I find it hearty and filling, and I could easily have it as a main dish served with some chicken.
I find the salad refreshing and perfect for summer, and it would be great at a barbecue. My husband thought it was a little too sweet for his liking, but I enjoyed it. I also love chickpeas, which might be why I liked it more.
Cost
The Celery Grain Salad costs $13.99 per kilogram, and the one I bought weighed 1.212 kilograms, so I paid $16.96 Canadian. It seemed a bit expensive, but it’s a fairly large amount of salad. You’re definitely paying for the convenience, though.
Convenience
The Celery Grain Salad needs to be kept refrigerated and has a best-before date three days from the purchase date. I wouldn’t recommend freezing it, as it would likely become soggy and the texture would change after thawing.
This would be great at any potluck or summer barbecue, and you can serve it with chicken, shrimp, steak, or pork. It would also make a nice lunch on its own.
Nutrition
Calories
In 1/6th of the container there are 390 calories, 15 grams of fat, 58 grams of carbohydrates, nine grams of fibre, 23 grams of sugar, 10 grams of protein and 150 milligrams of sodium. That’s quite a few calories, carbs and grams of fat! The amount of sugar also isn’t super low but I’m glad the sodium isn’t sky high and there’s 10 grams of protein.
Ingredients
The ingredients list is short and simple, with plenty of nutritious items. The salad is dairy-free but does contain gluten — quinoa is naturally gluten-free, but bulgur is not. It contains almonds, wheat, and mustard, and may also contain milk, egg, molluscs, crustaceans, other tree nuts, peanuts, soy, and sesame.
Scoring
Taste: 8/10
Cost: 6/10
Convenience: 10/10
Nutrition: 6/10
Overall
Give it a try!
I personally really enjoyed this salad, I think I like it better than the Kirkland Signature Quinoa Salad.
Have you tried the Kirkland Signature Celery Grain Salad? What did you think of it?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
