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This is a perfect green colour combo for a delicious summer salad. This healthy Quinoa Salad has asparagus, peas, courgette and a zesty fresh dressing. It’s also totally customisable too.
This recipe is a great example of how sometimes simple is best.
It’s a fresh, flavourful Quinoa Salad that’s perfect for spring and summer months, or for customising in colder months with different veggies.
We’re making this with seasonal asparagus and courgettes, peas, a sprinkling of parmesan and a lemony, zesty dressing.
It’s great to keep in the fridge for lunches throughout the week or as a delicious side dish.
Why you’ll love this easy Quinoa Salad recipe
⭐️ Healthy and protein-packed
⭐️ Perfect for make ahead lunches, picnics or side dish
⭐️ Seasonal, summery, light and delicious
How to customise your Quinoa Salad
A Quinoa Salad is the same as any other – really you can throw anything you like in and it will be delicious.
This easy summery recipe with fresh vegetables is my favourite combination, and the dressing works with it perfectly.
However, don’t be afraid to change the combinations if the greens aren’t in season right now or you want to use up the ingredients in your fridge. Experiment and see how it goes!
The best thing about using quinoa in a salad is that it’s honestly such a versatile ingredient that’s cheap and easy to work with.
You can even batch cook it and then store it in the fridge to enjoy with your lunches, packed lunches or dinners during the week.
Using stock to cook quinoa
This is the single best trick for cooking tasty quinoa and I urge you to make it this way!
You can use whichever stock you prefer (such as chicken), but I tend to stick with a good quality vegetable stock.
I like Marigold brand. I buy it in bulk on Amazon and you can really tell the difference.
Quinoa Salad Ingredients Notes
- Quinoa – Buy the larger bags of plain uncooked quinoa, rather than the pre-flavoured packets
- Vegetable stock – Use good quality stock and make about 750ml/3.25cups with boiling water
- Vegetables – For this recipe we’re using courgettes, asparagus and (frozen) petit pois
- Olive oil – This is to slightly cook the grains before boil them
- For the dressing – Lemons (juice and zest), oil (extra virgin if possible), honey, fresh mint and sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
How to make Quinoa Salad
1. Rinse the quinoa thoroughly, fry it in oil for 5 minutes, then add the stock, cover and boil for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice your courgettes lengthways, trim your asparagus and griddle them for a few minutes on each side until soft.
3. Make your dressing by mixing all of the ingredients together and whisking well. Meanwhile, cook the peas in boiling water for 3 or 4 minutes.
4. When the quinoa is cooked, remove from the heat and leave the lid on for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Roughly chop the veggies and mix everything together with the dressing. Serve with parmesan shavings.
Substitutions
- Veggies – Feel free to experiment with what you add into the salad, or use up what’s in your fridge. This includes herbs and spices, nuts and vegetables, salad, meat or even fruit
Leftovers
In the fridge This is fine to be kept in the fridge and eaten again another day. It will be delicious served cold, or you can reheat it. It should keep fine for up to 3 days.
In the freezer I wouldn’t recommend freezing the quinoa and vegetables as it will go soggy when defrosted.
Recipe Tip: Fry your quinoa in oil first
I know this sounds controversial but I got this tip from a chef many years ago and I promise it really does make a difference!
Simply fry/toast your quinoa in a pan with olive oil BEFORE you boil it.
I guess it’s a bit like frying risotto rice before adding liquid?
It makes sure the consistency is just right and stops it from getting mushy.
More tasty salad recipes…
Side Dishes
Easy Greek Salad
Under 15 minutes
Mexican Style Salad {with Zesty Lime Dressing}
Side Dishes
Crunchy Cabbage Salad {with Peanut Dressing}
Side Dishes
Quick Cucumber Salad {with Yoghurt Dressing}
FAQs
Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a grain-like ingredient, but it isn’t actually a grain – it’s a seed. It’s naturally gluten free and vegan, and is packed with protein, fibre and vitamins.
We often eat it as an alternative to cous cous, rice or pasta as it’s a hearty, bulky addition to a dish that has a nutty bite when cooked, but largely takes on the flavour of the accompanying ingredients.
Yes! It takes about 20 minutes to boil up and it can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for up to a week, meaning you can experiment with lots of different salads or add it to saucy dishes for lunches or dinners.
Simple rinse it in cold water until the liquid runs clear, then fry it a little, then add 1 part quinoa to 2 parts liquid, cover and boil until cooked – usually about 20 minutes.
Remove it from the heat and allow to stand with the lid on for about 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork and add to your dish.
Yes. In fact, if you don’t add the dressing, it will keep fine in a lidded container in the fridge for a few days.
You can even batch cook the quinoa and store it in the fridge to enjoy with your lunches, packed lunches or dinners with lots of different ingredients during the week.
You can use this as a side dish for so many dishes! It works well to make full meals of proteins such as Tandoori Chicken, Halloumi Burgers, Courgette Fritters or Simple Salmon, for example.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Quinoa Salad {Easy Recipe}
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 250 g (9 oz) Quinoa
- 750 ml (3.25 cups) Vegetable stock, See notes
- 4 Courgettes, Thinly sliced lengthways
- 300 g (11 oz) Asparagus
- 250 g (9 oz) Petit pois, Frozen
For the Dressing:
- 2 Lemons, Zest and juice only
- 6 tbsp Olive oil, Extra virgin preferably
- 2 tbsp Honey
- Fresh mint, Big handful | Finely chopped
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
To serve:
- Parmesan
Instructions
- Rinse your quinoa thoroughly in a sieve until the water runs clear.
- Put your oil into a saucepan over a medium heat and fry your quinoa for 5 minutes.
- Add the stock, cover with a lid and and boil the quinoa for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice your courgettes lengthways and trim your asparagus. Griddle them for a few minutes on each side until soft.
- Make your dressing by mixing all of the ingredients together and whisking well.
- Cook the peas in boiling water for 3-4 minutes and drain.
- When the quinoa is cooked, switch off the heat and leave the lid on the quinoa saucepan for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
- Roughly chop the courgette and asparagus and mix with the quinoa, peas and dressing.
- Serve with shavings of Parmesan cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was originally published on May 27, 2014 and updated later to make improvements.
Tasted really good but my quinoa cooking skills are not up to scratch. It turned into mush unfortunately.
Just seen the date too, I’m an idiot! Gorgeous x
So funny, I popped over to comment after your delicious looking post came up in myHM facebook feed and didn’t even see you’d linked up to #tastytuesdays, thanks darling, so lovely to have you. We adore asparagus in this house and I’ll be making this quinoa dish, so summery, and healthy too. I’ve bid goodbye to sugar for the next 6 weeks so recipes like this will keep me full, happy and away from the naughty stuff of which I’ve had far too much of recently, thanks xx
Wow Sarah this looks truly amazing! Such a gorgeous salad recipe and packed full of so much good stuff, am so bookmarking and making. Beautiful pics too. And well done on getting to the finals, go girl. Lovely to meet you at Food Blogger Connect too!
This sounds lovely, I really like quinoa. Shame that asparagus makes me sneeze… 🙂
This quinoa salad looks fantastic!! I love all the green veggies in it 🙂 I’m a big fan of quinoa – I was a little wary at first (or rather, uncertain that I was cooking it properly), but I’m a huge fan now!
A lovely mix of summer flavour, looks gorgeous