Description
Light and healthy, this delicious Simple Veggie Quinoa Salad is so easy to make! It is great for lunch, dinner, or especially as the filling inside veggie wraps. This recipe boasts fresh ingredients in a delightfully light salad dressing making it an ultimate Whole Food Plant Based salad, no oil, no sugar, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.
Ingredients
Scale
Veggie Ingredients:
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa (see notes below in Step 1 on cooking the quinoa*)
- 1 – 15.5 oz. can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 2 celery stalks (diced)
- 2 carrots (grated)
- ½ bell pepper (diced – We used a ½ of a yellow bell pepper. Use bell pepper color of choice)
- 15 small cherry tomatoes (halved – Grape or small heirloom tomatoes work equally well. We used a combination of cherry tomatoes and small heirloom tomatoes)
- ½ red onion (finely diced)
- 1 ½ cup fresh baby spinach (packed, then rough chop or torn)
- ½ cup golden raisins (or regular raisins)
- ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Salad Dressing:
- 3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (see recipes notes below*)
- 2 teaspoons 100% pure maple syrup
- 3 Tablespoons water
- ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/- to taste)
- 2 – 3 twists cracked pepper
Optional:
- Wraps (of choice to make veggie quinoa wraps)
- Hemp seeds (to top individual servings with hemp seeds)
- Avocado slices (to top individual servings or tucked inside wraps)
Instructions
- Rinse the dried quinoa well. There is a natural bitterness to quinoa. This is because the outer coating of quinoa is bitter by nature. In order to remove the bitterness, you have to rinse dry quinoa really well by vigorously rinsing it through a fine mesh strainer. Rinse and cook the quinoa by boiling 1 cup of dry (rinsed) quinoa in 2 cups of water with a dash of sea salt for 20 minutes. Allow to cool, fluff, refrigerate until ready to use.
- Make the salad dressing by combining all the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl, then whisking vigorously. Taste test (see recipe notes) and set aside.
- Make the salad by adding all the veggie ingredients into a large bowl, add the cooked quinoa, and salad dressing; then toss well. Refrigerate to allow the flavors to marry.
- To serve, make individual veggie quinoa salads and top with hemp seeds. OR, this salad is especially tasty inside a veggie wrap.
Notes
*Sea Salt: You may need to add some sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences.
*Lemon juice: If you prefer a lemony flavor, use 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice or less red wine vinegar. Start with 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and then add more after taste testing.
*Nutritional Information: Does not include toppings
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cup
- Calories: 266.7
- Sugar: 16.1 g
- Sodium: 270.2 mg
- Fat: 5.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 45.3 g
- Fiber: 8.1 g
- Protein: 10.3 g