Easy Quinoa Salad Recipe
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This easy quinoa salad recipe is the perfect summer salad for quinoa lovers. It’s flavorful, filling, and totally simple to make.
For me, summer is all about easy salads. Not just green salads, all kinds of salads! Fruits, grains, greens… they all make wonderful, fresh meals that are great for hotter days.
I recently made a large batch of quinoa and had to also use up some veggies I made for my culinary school classes. So I combined everything to get this wonderful quinoa salad and Mini Chef and I ate off of it all day long, straight out of the fridge!
About The Ingredients
Dry quinoa – Make sure you rinse it, even if the package says it’s pre-rinsed. You will see foam rise immediately when you start to rinse it. All that foam needs to be rinsed away. Use a fine mesh sieve and rinse well. More is better with this.
Vegetable broth – Low sodium with no sugar added is best.
Carrots – I used regular carrots for this, but you can also use baby carrots or simply buy your carrots pre-sliced.
Extra virgin olive oil – You can use any light-flavored oil you prefer. I sometimes even use coconut oil.
Butter – Optional, for extra flavor.
Shallots – Dice these as fine as you can get them for the best overall texture in your finished salad.
Green beans – Buy them raw and trip the ends and strings, or purchase them pre-prepped.
Green onions – You can use the green part, the white parts, or both. Your choice. Just slice them thin.
Salt and pepper – To taste
How To Make Quinoa Salad
Step 1 – Cook the quinoa ahead of time, or at the very least, first. It needs to have time to cool down so you can really fluff it with a fork. You don’t want mushy quinoa or clumps of quinoa for this salad. So cook it, cool it, fluff it and then mix everything else in.
Step 2 – While the quinoa cools, start working on the veggies. The carrots should go in the skillet first because they take longer to cook than the green beans. I purchased prepared french green beans, so all I had to do was dump them in the pan.
Step 3 – In the original recipes, I had to par-boil the vegetables first. You can do this ahead of time if you wish, but if not, you can simply cook them in a pan with a lid and vegetable broth to get them started. Once they are partially cooked, proceed as instructed.
Step 4 – At the very end, do not actually cook the green onions. You want to add them to the pan, give it a quick stir to incorporate them well into the dish, and then turn off the heat right away. They will impart more flavor to the dish if they aren’t completely wilted.
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container, in the fridge, for up to five days.
Freezing
This can be frozen if packed well. Freeze for up to 4 months.
Reheating
This can be reheated in a microwave. If you only have a stovetop, you’ll want to add a small amount of oil, butter, or broth to the pot to keep this from burning as it reheats.
More Healthy Quinoa Salads
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Green Bean Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry quinoa (rinsed will in a fine-meshed sieve)
- 2 cups vegetable broth – plus extra for the veggies if you haven’t par-boiled them. About 1/2 to 1 cup (no sugar added, low sodium is good too)
- 3 cups sliced carrots (about 1/4 inch thick)
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. butter (optional, for extra flavor)
- 1 ½ cups chopped shallots (diced fine)
- 8 oz. green beans (raw, prepared)
- 1 cup sliced green onions
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a medium pot, combine the thoroughly rinsed quinoa with the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook until all the liquid has cooked out. (about 20-30 minutes)
- Fluff with a fork and transfer to a dish that will chill the quinoa in the fridge while you cook the vegetables.
- In a large skille, bring the extra vegetable broth to a boil and add the carrots. Cover with a lid, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 2 minutes. Remove lid.
- Add the oil and butter (it’s okay if there is still some liquid in the pan. It will cook out).
- Add the shallots, and continue cooking over low to medium heat until the shallots are translucent.
- Add in the green beans and cook for about another 3 minutes or so, or until the green beans are cooked to your liking.
- Stir in the green onions thoroughly, then remove the pan from heat and continue to stir for about 30 seconds as it cools a bit.
- You can stir the vegetable into the quinoa now or chill them separately and mix just before serving. Your choice.
- Once everything is mixed, season with salt and pepper and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
