Quinoa Salad
Rinse the quinoa properly and toast it dry before the water goes in. Unrinsed quinoa is bitter, and untoasted quinoa tastes of very little.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Resting
- 10 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 6
- Revisions
- 1
Allergens
- Nuts
Named from the ingredients as written, including those carried in from sub-recipes. This is not a guarantee — check the labels on what you actually buy, and note that a product’s recipe can change.
Ingredients
Serves
Quinoa
Dressing
Salad
Method
Quinoa
Rinse the quinoa in a fine sieve under cold running water for a full minute, rubbing it with your fingers.
Quinoa seeds are coated in saponins, a natural bitter compound that deters birds. Most packets are pre-rinsed and most are not rinsed enough; a minute under the tap is the difference between a nutty grain and a soapy one.
Drain it very well and tip it into a dry pan over medium heat.
Toast for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until the water has gone and the grains smell nutty and start to click against the pan.
Add the stock and salt, bring to a boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 15 minutes.
Take it off the heat and leave it covered for a further 10 minutes, then fork it through. The little white spirals should have uncurled from the grains, which is what done looks like.
Dressing
Whisk the dressing ingredients together and fork half of it through the warm quinoa.
Let it cool to room temperature.
Salad
Fold in the beans, tomatoes, pepper, spring onions and coriander with the remaining dressing.
Add the avocado and the toasted seeds and nuts at the very last moment — the avocado so it does not break up, the seeds and nuts so they stay crunchy rather than softening in the dressing.
Taste for salt and lemon.
Nobody has rated this recipe yet.
Sign in to rate this recipe. One rating per person, and you can change it.
What to expect
- Taste
Nutty and mildly earthy, with lemon and coriander doing most of the flavour and the toasting giving a background that is easy to miss until it is absent.
- Aroma
Toasted grain and coriander.
- Texture
The reason to toast the seeds and nuts: quinoa is soft and uniform, and it needs something crunchy in every mouthful.
- Sound
The quinoa clicking against the dry pan as it toasts, which is also how you know it is ready.
- How the flavour moves
Lemon first, then the nuttiness of the grain, then a green herbal finish.
- Serve it
Room temperature or slightly warm.
- Goes with
Grilled fish or chicken, roasted vegetables, or a spoonful of hummus. It is a good foil rather than a centrepiece.
Cook's notes
- Difficulty
Beginner.
- Cost
Mid. Quinoa is not cheap.
- Equipment
A fine sieve and a pan with a lid.
- When to make it
Lunch, or a side for grilled food.
- Best season
None.
- You know it is done when
The little white spirals — the germ — should have uncurled from the grains and be visible as separate threads. That is what done looks like and it is unambiguous.
- And it feels like
Separate and slightly springy, with a faint pop. Mushy means too much liquid or too long.
- Food safety
Nothing unusual. Like any cooked grain, cool it and refrigerate promptly rather than leaving it standing.
- Where it goes wrong
- Not rinsing, or a token rinse, which leaves it bitter and soapy.
- Skipping the toasting, which is where most of the flavour comes from.
- Too much liquid — two parts liquid to one of quinoa by weight is right, and more gives porridge.
- Skipping the ten-minute rest, so the grains are wet.
- Adding avocado and nuts early, so one breaks up and the others go soft.
- Under-dressing. Quinoa absorbs a lot and needs more than it looks like it does.
- If it does go wrong
Bitter or soapy: it was not rinsed, and it cannot be fixed after cooking. Mushy: too much liquid. Bland: it was not toasted, and now needs salt and considerably more lemon. Wet: it needed the covered rest.
- Making it ahead
The cooked and dressed quinoa keeps three days; add everything else fresh.
- Keeping it
Three days, with the avocado and nuts added fresh each time.
- Reheating
It can be eaten warm and is good that way.
- Freezing
Cooked plain quinoa freezes for two months.
- Leftovers
A lunchbox staple. Add the avocado on the day.
- Scaling it
Linear.
- Substitutions
Any colour of quinoa; red and black hold their shape slightly better and take a couple of minutes longer. Bulgur or couscous for a cheaper and gluten-containing version.
- Dietary swaps
Contains nuts from the almonds — leave them out and it is nut free, with the pumpkin seeds doing the same job. Naturally gluten free, which is the main reason people cook it. Vegan and dairy free as written.
- Shopping for it
Buy it in bulk rather than small boxes, where the markup is considerable.
- Keeping the cost down
Quinoa is the expensive part. Bulgur or pearl barley make a similar salad for a fraction of the cost, if gluten is not the reason for choosing it.
- Sustainability
Quinoa is drought-tolerant, grows at altitudes where little else does, and has a low footprint per kilogram — but almost all of it is shipped a long way, and the crop's boom has had real and mixed effects on Andean growing regions. The pulses and vegetables around it are the lowest-impact things in the bowl. If the reason for choosing quinoa is that it is gluten free, it is a good choice; if it is simply a grain salad, home-grown pearl barley or bulgur does the same job with less travel.
- Nutrition
A complete protein, which is unusual in a plant food, plus good fibre. The nuts and seeds add real substance.
- Worth it?
Sixty seconds of rinsing and five minutes of toasting, and it stops being the grain people put up with.
Where it comes from
- Origin
The Andes — Peru and Bolivia in particular.
- Also called
Quinua in Spanish, kinwa in Quechua.
- Said out loud
KEEN-wah.
- What the name means
From Quechua kinwa.
- History
Quinoa has been cultivated in the Andean highlands for several thousand years and was central to Andean agriculture and religion before the Spanish conquest, after which its cultivation was actively discouraged in favour of European cereals. Its rise in northern kitchens dates from the 1980s, and the UN's International Year of Quinoa in 2013 accelerated it sharply. It is not a cereal but a pseudocereal — the seed of a plant related to spinach and beetroot — which is why it is gluten free.
- Why it matters
Staple food in the Andes and, elsewhere, a health-food signifier of the 2010s, which is a very different relationship to the same seed.
- When it is eaten
Lunchboxes, salads, and anything needing a gluten-free grain.
- The traditional way
Washing to remove the saponins is the traditional step and the one most often skipped abroad.
- How it changed
In the Andes it is used in soups, stews and drinks as often as anything else. Abroad it is almost exclusively a salad grain.
- Regional variations
White, red and black varieties, with red and black holding their shape better.
- How this version differs
The full rinse and the dry toast, both stated with the reason, because between them they account for most of the difference between quinoa people like and quinoa people tolerate.
- Sources and credit
None.
Garlicky Greens
Lemony Chickpea and Herb Salad
Air Fryer Chips
Air Fryer Halloumi
Air Fryer Tofu
Braised White Beans with Sage
Side dishes
Main courses
Vegan
Vegetarian
30 minutes