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!
Everyone I’ve made this quinoa salad for loved it (even those who don’t typically like quinoa). I’m not surprised, though. Adam isn’t the biggest quinoa fan but he loves this salad! We pack in so much texture and flavor. It’s hard not to love it!
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
- 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.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Quinoa Salad
Tip 1: Cook the quinoa. Cooking quinoa is quick and easy. For all of our tips on preparing it, check out our guide for how to cook quinoa. Here’s a quick overview:
- Rinse dried quinoa under cold water (this removes saponin, which can make quinoa taste bitter).
- Combine the rinsed quinoa and water in a saucepan (use 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa).
- Simmer, uncovered, until the liquid is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Take off the heat, let it steam, then fluff with a fork.
Tip 2: Make the salad dressing. While the quinoa cools, I make the salad dressing in a small bowl and whisk everything together. It takes a couple of minutes.
Tip 3: Make the salad. When its cooled down a bit, I add the quinoa and all of the remaining salad ingredients to a big bowl. Drizzle the dressing over everything and give it all a good toss.
This really is one of the best quinoa salad recipes because it is packed with goodies. I love all the colorful and crunchy vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Then, the dried fruit adds a little chewiness, and chickpeas help with sticking power.
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. If you are a fan of black beans you might to try making our quinoa black bean 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
½ 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
½ cup (65g) nuts and seeds like walnuts, pine nuts, pepitas or sunflower seeds
¼ cup (35g) dried fruit, blueberries or cranberries
½ cup coarsely chopped fresh herbs like fresh parsley, cilantro, basil, dill or mint
For the Dressing¼ cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup (60ml) apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon honey or maple syrup
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
¼ 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
- Storing: This 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.
- As a substitute for the dried fruit, consider adding ½ 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.
This salad is truly amazing. I always make it for potlocks at work. The first time I made it, I wasn’t sure it would do well (it seemed like my work crowd wouldn’t gravitate towards it) and I was shocked to see that it was gone in minutes. Everyone asks about it/tries to guess the ingredients and I generously refer them to this recipe! Thanks for sharing your creativity in the kitchen! I’m so excited to try all your recipes.
This review made us smile. Thank you so much! 🙂
Simply delicious! Perfect for gluten-free and vegetarian diets. Highly recommend it!
I have been looking for a quinoa recipe that was easy and tasty….THIS ONE IS IT. Very refreshing and easily customizable. The vinaigrette is spot on. Thank you for this recipe.
Wonderful! We are so happy you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Delicious
Love this recipe – thanks so much. As with other commented I’ve had so many people who say they don’t really like quinoa that end I loving this salad. I encourage very harsh reviews from my wife and she gave this a 9.8/10 haha – stoked.
please send me some good quinoa receipes
I just made this today for a lunch guest tomorrow. Should I put the dressing on then?
It is up to you. The salad lasts well overnight, but you can always keep all the ingredients prepped and separate until serving.
I’m a Personal Chef and I have been making this recipe for the past year or so now and all of my clients ( including their younger kids!) love it. Two of those clients requested having it every week. What I love most about it is the versatility of it. If I have made this salad 100 times then I swear I made it 95 different ways. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Thank you so much for letting us know, Damar!
love this salad, the dressing is excellent we didn’t have some ingrediants and it still turned out great.. all about the dressing (:
love the dried fruit, we used cranberries and we used pumkin seeds as well it was great
Super tasty and easy to make. I kept some in the fridge for my take away lunch next day. It was great even on second day.
I made spicy salmon with it and it was just perfect. Planning to make it again tomorrow.
Made this salad to bring to family Thanksgiving. I’m a seasoned vegetarian cook, but apparently not seasoned enough, because as I read through the ingredient list I didn’t notice that it’s missing something important – a salty component, like olives, feta, sundried tomatoes..I made it as is and it tasted bland to me. If I make it again I’ll add something salty to it.
Thanks for giving the salad a try! You make a great point about the salty component. While I love the fresh, bright flavors as is, I can see how adding something salty could enhance it for some palates. Olives, feta, or sundried tomatoes would all be delicious additions! I appreciate your feedback, and I’m glad you have ideas for customizing it to your liking.
Just about to make this again, as we loved it so much last time. I remember it made a huge amount and there are only two of us, but I can’t for the life of me see how many servings the whole recipe makes. The nutrition info is provided per cup, not per serving, confusing me even more.
should i toast the pine nuts?? if i use them?
I usually do (toasting brings out their flavor).
This salad is delicious! I have made several variations using different, fruits, veggies and beans. Everyone I have shared this with sends me beautiful pictures of their unique version. I love using fresh mint, cilantro and parsley. Along with fresh squeezed lemon and lime. I used a good quality, white balsamic peach vinegar that is amazing. Thanks for sharing! Keep up the great recipes.!
absolutely delicious!!
I’ve been making this wonderful salad for a couple of years now and it’s my families favorite!!!!!
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.
Excellent salad! I make it once a week plus it’s my “go to” item I take to pot lucks. I love looking through my pantry and adding items, different nuts & seeds, dried and fresh fruit, sometimes fines chopped cauliflower. Try it, you won’t be disappointed!!
Using chopped cauliflower is genius, Marie. Thanks for the tip!
I absolutely hated quinoa… until I found this recipe that is. OMG what a game changer this was. The sweetness of the fruits, combined with the crunchiness of the veggies is just simply divine. Even my very picky 6 year old likes it and I can never make enough for all of, no matter how many times I double the recipe coz they keep wanting more lol. I particularly liked how you added a link on how to cook the quinoa, that was very helpful. I do have one question though. What can I serve this with as I always end up with boring chicken breast which doesn’t do it justice.
Amazing! 🙂
This quinoa salad is amazing!!! The best I have ever had! I literally added every veggie I had and added green apple for the crunch amazing!!! This will definitely be a weekly staple thank you so much for the recipe!!!!
Next time I make this, I am going to add some apple, too. Such a great idea. I bet the sweet crunch is a wonderful addition. Thanks for the idea, Heather.
This may be a silly comment, but…should I cook the broccoli stems and bok choy before adding to the salad? Or is everything raw?
We add all the veggies raw.
I made this last night. What makes this recipe special is how customizable it is. It was so fresh, so delicious, and so filling–and, it makes a ton! We ate it as a whole meal with sliced avocado. I am hooked. When I taste-tested it for salt before plating, I could not stop taste-testing! I was eating serving-spoon bites 😭 I couldn’t stop. The only thing i did differently was I made my quinoa in the microwave because that’s just a thing I do now. Now excuse me while I go eat more standing at the refrigerator…
Haha, it sounds like you really like the salad! We are thrilled!! Thanks for coming back and letting us know, it means so much.
*Oh, and I used dried currants I plumped up in hot water.
What a beautiful salad! Loved it!! You might want to add the word ‘drained’ after can chickpeas in case you have a beginning cook 🙂 Thank you.