Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad
About this recipe:
This Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad is probably one of my favorite veggie creations. Its amazing to me, because I hated vegetables as a kid. This isn’t anything unique but I definitely love them now. My mother was a great cook but a poor single parent. So the vegetables I would eat were either canned or frozen. What’s worse is she would often just boil them and boiled canned/frozen vegetables are always mushy and bland.
It wasn’t until I moved out on my own and could decide what to buy that I started trying vegetables and cooking them in ways that didn’t leech out all their flavor. It was like a whole new world had opened up to me. I discovered how delicious vegetables could be and had a blast trying new ones.
This salad is great as a side or as a meal all on its own, as its very filling. My favorite thing about it is that it’s delicious hot or cold. You can easily meal prep this and eat throughout the week or take it to any family gathering. You can also serve it hot and fresh, it goes especially well with steak. It’s an added bonus that this recipe is completely vegetarian and vegan!
Why Quinoa?
If you didn’t know quinoa is actually a seed from the Chenopodium quinoa plant, even though most people think it’s a grain. Whole grains (or cereal grains), like oats and barley, are defined as seeds extracted from grasses, not plants. But the way we eat quinoa is similar to how we eat other grains. Because of this, the nutrition world considers it a whole grain.
I love cooking with this seed/grain because it is protein rich and soaks up the dressing really well. It also has a wonderful texture that compliments the roasted veggies. If you haven’t tried quinoa I highly recommend it. It’s very similar to cooking rice, but even easier in my opinion.
Substitutions and Alterations
You can easily add, subtract or change the vegetable you use in the salad. Just make sure you cut them to the appropriate size so that all the vegetables cook evenly. For example the sweet potato needs to be cut smaller than the other vegetables, because it takes longer to cook.
The dressing is a play on Mediterranean flavors and the citrus really brightens the salad. You can substitute other oil based dressing as well to create new flavor profiles, some good ones would be: Italian Dressing, Balsamic Dressing, Ginger Sesame Dressing (which you can find in my Asian Chicken Pasta Salad recipe.)
Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad Step by Step:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl, except for the olive oil. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until well combined. The reason you do this is so that the oil will create an emulsion, which will help keep the ingredients from separating. Set aside. This should make about 1 cup of dressing.
Add the broth/water and quinoa to a medium sized pot. Stir well and bring the quinoa to a simmer then turn the heat to low and put the lid on the quinoa. Simmer for 20 minutes and then turn the heat off and let sit until you are ready to serve.
Then fluff the quinoa with a fork. Stir in 1/3 of the dressing. Make sure to taste before using any extra salt, especially if you used broth.
While the Quinoa is cooking, add the jalapeno, sweet potatoes, bell pepper and zucchini on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or until everything is golden and tender.
Toss with 1/3 of the remaining dressing. At this point you can decide whether or not you want to serve it warm or cold. If the latter then just place the quinoa and veggies in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Make a bed of baby spinach and then pile the quinoa on top and add the roasted vegetables. Add the avocado to the bowl and serve immediately.. Squeeze more fresh lemon or drizzle more dressing on top, optional. You can also easily make this a jar salad. Just layer it the same way inside jars and seal tightly. Store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad Video Tutorial
Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
Quinoa:
- 2 cups vegetable broth, or water
- 2 cups quinoa
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
Salad Dressing:
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Roasted Vegetables:
- 2 jalapeno peppers, diced
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced small
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 zucchini, diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Garnishes:
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 lemon, for squeezing
Instructions
Salad Dressing:
- Add all ingredients to a medium bowl, except for the olive oil. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until well combined. Set aside. This should make about 1 cup of dressing.
For the Salad:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Add the water and quinoa to a medium sized pot. Stir well and bring the quinoa to a simmer then turn the heat to low and put the lid on the quinoa. Simmer for 20 minutes and then turn the heat off and let sit until you are ready to serve. Then fluff the quinoa with a fork. Stir in 1/3 of the dressing.
- Add the jalapeno, sweet potatoes, bell pepper and zucchini on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or until everything is golden and tender.
- Toss with 1/3 of the remaining dressing. At this point you can decide whether or not you want to serve it warm or cold. If the latter then just place the quinoa and veggies in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Make a bed of baby spinach and then pile the quinoa on top and add the roasted vegetables. Add the avocado and serve immediately. Squeeze more fresh lemon or drizzle more dressing on top, optional.