This is one of the best quinoa salad recipes I’ve made! It’s packed with fresh veggies, texture, and flavor. Our easy homemade dressing makes the quinoa taste incredible!
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Everyone I’ve made this quinoa salad for loved it (even those who don’t typically like quinoa). I’m not surprised, though. We pack in so much texture and flavor. It’s hard not to love this easy quinoa salad.
Our homemade quinoa salad dressing calls for honey, but if you wish to make a vegan quinoa salad, swap for maple syrup, and you are all set!
Key Ingredients
This is one of the best quinoa salad recipes because it is packed with goodies. I add lots of colorful and crunchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and chickpeas for sticking power.
- Quinoa: We’ve shared an entire article guiding you on how to cook quinoa, but here are the main takeaways: Rinse quinoa before you cook it to cut down on the bitter flavor. For perfectly fluffy quinoa, use 2 cups of water for 1 cup of dried quinoa.
- Veggies: I use fresh cucumber, bok choy, grated carrots, and bell pepper, but any fresh, crispy veggie or roasted veggies work in this salad. I especially love the bok choy, which adds a mild and crunchy texture.
- Nuts and seeds: I love buttery pine nuts and pepitas. Walnuts, pistachios, almonds, or seeds like sunflower seeds are also excellent options.
- Dried fruit: In the photos, we’ve added dried wild blueberries. Cranberries or raisins will also work. If they are in season, fresh fruit will work, too. I cannot wait until summer, so I can add a handful of fresh blueberries to this salad.
- Fresh herbs: Add color and flavor. I love stirring in a generous amount of parsley and mint.
- Chickpeas: Make our quinoa salad even more hearty and satisfying. You can use canned or home-cooked chickpeas (here’s how to cook dried chickpeas).
- Quinoa salad dressing: I keep things simple with apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, and extra-virgin olive oil. For a vegan dressing, swap the honey for maple syrup. Add an extra spritz of fresh lemon juice if you have it. It brightens everything up even more.
How to Make Quinoa Salad
To make quinoa salad, you’ll want to cook your quinoa first. Rinse your quinoa under cold water to remove saponin, which makes unrinsed quinoa taste bitter. Then, add the rinsed quinoa to a saucepan and water (I use 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa to cook it). Cook the quinoa uncovered until the liquid is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes.
Set aside the saucepan, and let the quinoa steam and fluff up. Then, fluff it with a fork and allow it to cool a bit.
While the quinoa cools, prepare the rest of the salad. I make the salad dressing in a small bowl and whisk everything together. It takes a couple of minutes. Then, I add the cooled quinoa and all of the remaining salad ingredients to a big bowl. Drizzle the dressing over everything and give it all a good toss. Easy!
Storing Quinoa Salad
This quinoa salad lasts in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. After 3 days, the salad might wilt slightly, but it will still taste great! I do not recommend freezing the salad. For tips on preparing and freezing cooked quinoa by itself, see this guide for cooking quinoa.
More Quinoa Recipes
- How to Cook Quinoa
- Black Bean and Quinoa Salad
- Tahini Lemon Quinoa Bowls
- Easy Vegetarian Chili (made with sweet potatoes and quinoa)
The Best Quinoa Salad
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This incredible quinoa salad recipe is packed with superfoods. It’s easy to make and makes a great make-ahead salad.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For the Salad1 cup dried quinoa
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 medium English cucumber, diced (1 cup)
1 medium bell pepper, chopped (1 cup)
1 baby bok choy, chopped (2 cups)
1 cup additional grated or chopped veggies like carrots or broccoli stems, optional
1/2 cup (65g) nuts and seeds like walnuts, pine nuts, pepitas or sunflower seeds
1/4 cup (35g) dried fruit, blueberries or cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh herbs like fresh parsley, cilantro, basil, dill or mint
For the Dressing1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup (60ml) apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Juice from 2 to 3 lemon wedges, optional
Directions
- Cook Quinoa
1Place quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and rinse thoroughly under cool running water for 30 seconds to a minute. Or, add quinoa to a bowl. Cover with cool water, swirl the quinoa around, then drain. Repeat this rinsing process once more.
2Gently shake the quinoa to remove any extra water after rinsing.
3Add the rinsed quinoa and 2 cups of water to a medium saucepan.
4Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, so it’s at a gentle simmer, and cook uncovered until the quinoa absorbs all the liquid, 10 to 15.
5Remove the pan from heat, cover, and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then, uncover and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Allow the quinoa to cool slightly before using in your salad.
- Make Quinoa Salad
1In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard, honey (or maple syrup), salt, and pepper until well combined.
2Mix the cooled quinoa, chickpeas, cucumber, bell pepper, bok choy, extra veggies, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and herbs in a large bowl.
3Pour the dressing over the salad and toss until everything is well coated. Taste the salad and add more salt and pepper if needed. For more fresh flavor, squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the top.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- The quinoa salad will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
- As a substitute for the dried fruit, consider adding 1/2 to 1 cup of fresh fruit like blueberries, diced apple or chopped mango.
- For a vegan friendly quinoa salad, substitute the honey with maple syrup.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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I just made this salad for the first time. Made as written except I didn’t have dried fruit so omitted. I did add sunflower seeds. This is incredibly delicious! I love the dressing and I never thought to eat bok choy raw it is so good! I will add dried blueberries next time. This will be a regular in my lunch rotation thank you!
That’s great, Janet. I’m so happy you gave our recipe a try. Thank you for coming back.
I’m also not a big fan of quinoa, but this salad is so good! I eat it as a side and as a snack.
Yay! Thank you so much for coming back to let us know you enjoy it!
This salad is the best quinoa salad I have ever had! My husband, who is not a fan of quinoa, looked forward to leftovers the following days!
We are so happy that you both enjoyed it! We were not always the biggest fans of quinoa, either, and we both love this salad.
First time I’ve fixed anything with quinoa in it. We love this salad! We’ll definitely be having this again! Fixed it as written. Delicious!!! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
We are thrilled that you enjoyed it, Georgie! Thank you for coming back and leaving a review!
Wow! Guy’s this was delicious,I have never had Quinoa salad, but I love Quinoa so I tried your recipe. 5 stars hands down so fresh. Only thing I did a little different is add some lemon zest.
Lemon zest is a fantastic idea (anything to add even more fresh flavor, right?). We are so happy that you enjoyed the salad!
I came across this recipe . I used chopped fresh Bessel sprouts, cucumber, red onion, both red and yellow peppers, black beans, flax seed and sunflower seeds. I didn’t have Dijon mustard so I used thousand island dressing and red wine vinegar, maple syrup (added turmeric, ginger and cinnamon) !!!! This is delicious!!!! My new go to!
We are glad you could improvise with what you had on hand, Sher. Thanks so much for sharing.
This was good, but it was definitely too much vinegar for me and I’m someone who normally loves vinegar. I couldn’t taste the natural flavors of the ingredients or those in the dressing. If I make it again, I’d definitely add lemon zest (in addition to juice), plus less ACV to cut acidity and create a more balanced flavor. Mint was a great addition to this. Other than that, thanks for a great dish.
Hi Ali, Thanks for your feedback. We love keeping our salads fresh and bright, so we often use a little more acid when making them. I also love the extra zing for salads that tend to keep well for days in the fridge (like this one) since the acid keeps the flavor bright.
Outstandingly fresh and delicious! Will be making this again with your other variation suggestions. Took this for a funeral dish and it literally flew out the bowl! Many requests for the recipe. Thank you.
Hi Sue, We are sorry for your loss, but are happy that you found something everyone enjoyed. Thanks so much for sharing.
I added roast pumpkin and used a pomegranate dressing, sensational thank you
Roasted pumpkin is a great idea. I’ll keep that in mind this Fall!
It’s very interesting… so many flavours and textures happening. Good side salad rather than a full meal
Hi Caitlin, We are thrilled that you gave our recipe a try! Glad you enjoyed it.
This is delicious, will definitely be using this recipe from now on!!
This is such wonderful news, Ashley.
Very good. Feeds an army! Leftovers are good and delicious and so nutritious and filling will comprise a nice meal in itself.
Wonderful! I love how this salad keeps for a few days. It’s great knowing there’s a healthy, fresh meal in the fridge.
We loved the superfood quinoa salad recipe , the best we have tried
This is wonderful, Helen. Thank you for coming back and leaving a review.
So good! I swapped red wine vinegar for apple cider since that was all I had, but it was still delicious! Great way to use up all the odds and ends in your fridge, too!
Yes! This salad is perfect for throwing in any extra/lonely veggies in the fridge. Thanks for coming back, Emily.
Wow I made this a few days ago and have enjoyed eating it everyday so far for lunch. It’s delicious, I added hot smoked Salmon crumbled on top and that works really well. I’m going to make another batch tomorrow I’m just wondering what I could use in the dressing so I don’t have to use so much olive oil, as delicious as it is I’m trying to minimise calories and this is so healthy in every other way.
Oh my gosh, I LOVE the idea to add the smoked salmon. As far as an olive oil substitute, you could make the dressing with about half the oil (I’d still keep some), and then when you serve the salad, add a little avocado or yogurt to the top to keep things balanced.