This Berry and Nuts Quinoa Salad is a light and fresh lunch or side salad, yet it has plenty of protein from quinoa and nuts. Fresh summer berries are little powerhouses of vitamins and are super kid-friendly. But the cinnamon toasted nuts will take this dish to the next level.
Ingredients of a loaded vegan quinoa salad
Let me start by saying that eating this salad will feel like eating a dessert. It is crunchy due to the candied nuts, it is sweet and sour due to the different fresh berries, and it is filling due to quinoa. Finally, the maple dijon dressing just makes all these ingredients come together as a delicious light lunch.
- Quinoa
- Mixed baby salad greens
- Mixed fresh berries
- Pecans or walnuts (toasted in cinnamon maple syrup)
- Maple dijon vinegarette dressing
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
How to make a quinoa salad with berries and nuts?
Cooking quinoa
Combine the quinoa and water in a small pot and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes
Toasting pecans or walnuts
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the nuts and stir to coat evenly. Heat the coconut oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Pour the pecans in the skillet, spreading them out in an even layer. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently until toasted. Then, let them cool.
Making salad dressing
In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients (dijon mustard, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and salt) until smooth.
Assemble your salad
Combine the mixed baby greens, mixed berries, cooked quinoa, and toasted pecans in a large salad bowl. Mix well. To serve, divide among 4 bowls and drizzle with the Maple Dijon Vinaigrette.
Substitutions
- Try using romaine, red leaf lettuce, or arugula instead of the mixed baby greens to change it up.
- You can use other nuts like walnuts, almond sliced or cashews. If you need to eat nut-free than try sunflower seeds.
- Apart from berries, we also added red and black currants.
- If you don’t like quinoa, you can try it with millet or buckwheat. If you don’t need it to be gluten-free, then you can try it with couscous or other gluten-free couscous substitutes.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
What kind of quinoa salad is this?
Well, I was asked to review a cookbook. It is such an exciting thing to do. I am excited as I get to try new recipes, and I also feel the excitement of the author as their new “baby” reviewed by many bloggers at the same time. But the most exciting thing is that I get to share with you one recipe from the book. And I chose this delicious QUINOA SALAD recipe.
But which cookbook is it, you ask?
The Meatless Monday Family Cookbook by Jenn Sebestyen
Used with permission from Jenn Sebestyen and Fair Winds Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc. © 2019.
Jenn is the creator behind Veggie Inspired, which she has started in 2012. She shares plant-based recipes that are tailored to make standard American favorites healthier and are helping anyone to cook international dishes easily. If you haven’t found her online, you should definitely go and see for yourself.
She is a mom of 3 kids and is following a plant-based/vegan diet for more than 10 years now. We were super excited to get her book as her values are absolutely in-line with ours. She also says that
A well-rounded whole foods plant based diet is the healthiest way to eat. – /Jenn/
She started to look into healthy eating after she had her first child. Just like us. We also started to research on how to feed kids in a healthy way after we had our first daughter. She was inspired to start her plant-based journey after finding Alicia Silverstone’s cookbook, The Kind Diet, in the library. Now, she proudly conveys the following message:
You don’t have to decide today if you want to go meatless forever. In fact, you never have to. But adding more fruits and vegetables to your plate and cutting down on saturated fat and choles-terol can’t be a bad thing. I want you to know and believe that eating a plant-based diet can be healthy, satisfying, and totally delicious! ? – /Jenn/
What can you find in the cookbook?
Jenn’s cookbook is almost 200 pages long and divided into 11 chapters. The book is full of delicious meatless recipes that are easy, fuss-free, and can be done within 30 minutes. Exactly what we need if we want something healthy, delicious and quick lunch and dinner on the table.
The cookbook starts off with an introductory chapter about
- How to Start Meatless Mondays
- Pantry and Kitchen Essentials – She lists plant-based staples so that you can easily start your Meatless Mondays. It is similar to our Vegan Grocery List.
- Kitchen Tools
- How to Get the Kids Involved – She shares her experience and tips on how to make sure that your kids are on-board and ready to try veggies and fruits and other meatless meals.
When we think of Quick Vegan Meals, we do think of soups, salads, pasta, stir-fry, and one-pot meals. Her recipes don’t have a long list of crazy unique ingredients and spices. She uses well-known staples to create colorful, rich, and nutritious dishes. You can choose from at least 10 delicious recipes listed under the following categories.
- Hearty Soups
- Satisfying Salads
- Loaded Handhelds
- Bountiful Bowls
- Perfect Pasta
- One-Pot Wonders
- Comforting Casseroles
- Center Stages Vegetables
- Breakfast for Dinner
- Sauces and Staples
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
Some of her recipes from the cookbook we recommend
We list you here some of the recipes from the book we either made and loved or on our list of must-try dishes:
- Creamy Vegetable Noodle Soup – We made it and it is delicious. You can also find this recipe at Lori’s My Quite Kitchen.
- Very Berry Quinoa Salad with Cinnamon Toasted Pecans – We LOVED it, hence we chose this recipe to share it with you. So, jump to the bottom quickly!
- Rice and Bean Pan Grilled Burritos – If you need something super quick, these burritos should definitely be on your list.
- Pineapple Curried Cauliflower Rice Bowls – It has chickpeas, green peas, pineapple, and spicy minced cauliflower instead of rice. We love to use minced cauliflower as vegan ground beef in for example Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese, but it is a great and nutritious alternative to plain rice as well.
- Vegan Scampi in Lemon Garlic White Wine Sauce – It is on our must-try list for sure. We are so curious how hearts of palm taste like in the place of scampi.
- Jenn’s famous Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese – So so delicious. Here is the recipe. We also have a veggie-loaded mac and cheese and a cashew mac and cheese recipe, but you can never have enough delicious mac and cheese recipes. Am I right?
- Skillet Chickpea Chilaquiles – It is a kind of loaded tortilla chips recipe with chickpeas, corn, radish, and onion mixed in salsa, guacamole, and creamy cumin ranch dressing combo. So yummy!! Here is the recipe at Carol’s From a Chef’s Kitchen.
All in all this cookbook is awesome. We recommend it to anyone who would like to start eating plant-based or vegan or just one dish at a time. All the recipes you can choose from are easy to make and fuss-free. So they are quick wins that will encourage you to try more and more!
⇒ Buy The Meatless Monday Cookbook on Amazon now, and start eating the rainbow!
This Berry and Nuts Quinoa Salad recipe is meat-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. It is also suitable for a vegan and vegetarian diet. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) if you use an oil-free salad dressing and toast pecans in the oven without oil.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
More quick lunch recipes
You can browse through our Vegan Salad Recipes or our Quick Vegan Meals collection or check out
- Quick Vegan Spinach Pasta Sauce
- Easy Vegan Alfredo Sauce
- Broccoli Lentil Stir-fry
- Chipotle Veggie Burrito Bowl with Fajita Veggies
- Vegan Jackfruit Stew
Quinoa Salad with Berries and Candied Nuts
Ingredients
Quinoa
- 1 cup Quinoa 173 g
- 1 ¼ cups Water 3 dl
Cinnamon Toasted Pecans
- 1 cup Pecans or walnuts (halves) 110 g
- 1 ½ Tbsp Maple syrup 30 g
- 1 Tbsp Coconut sugar
- 1 tsp Coconut oil
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- pinch Salt
Salad
- 6 cups Mixed baby salad greens 330 g
- 2 cups Fresh mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc.)
Maple Dijon Vinaigrette
- ½ cup Extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp Maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp Salt
Instructions
Cooking quinoa
- Combine the quinoa and water in a small pot and bring to a boil.
- Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes until the quinoa is tender and the liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork.
Toasting pecans
- Line a large plate with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add the pecans and stir to coat evenly.
- Heat the coconut oil in a non-stick skillet or frying pan over medium heat.
- Pour the pecans in the skillet, spreading them out in an even layer.
- Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently until toasted. Nuts can burn quickly, so don’t walk away at this point!
- You’ll know the pecans are done when you start to smell them.
- Pour them out onto the parchment-lined plate and spread in an even layer. Let them cool. They will crisp up as they cool.
Making Maple Dijon Vinaigrette
- In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until smooth.
Assemble your salad
- Combine the mixed baby greens, mixed berries, cooked quinoa, and toasted pecans in a large salad bowl. Mix well.
- To serve, divide among 4 bowls and drizzle with the Maple Dijon Vinaigrette.
Sea
I love your idea about the strawberry. I love them. Thank you