This quinoa salad with tomato, cucumber and spinach is a healthy salad – perfect for summer as it’s easy and quick to make. Plus it’s light, flavorful and filling! Made with simple ingredients, it also packs a flavour punch, thanks to an asian-style dressing made with fresh ginger, soy sauce, lemon and honey.
Quinoa Salad with Tomato, Cucumber and Spinach — easy and healthy!
With fresh summer flavors, this quinoa salad is pretty straightforward. There are crisp baby cucumbers, sweet and juicy cherry tomatoes, fresh baby spinach, and my favorite herb in the world – cilantro. All tossed together as an easy, tasty salad that’s perfect for lunch or dinner. Or a bring along to your next barbecue or picnic.
As a vegetarian salad, quinoa is a great choice of pseudo-grain. It has a terrific nutty flavour and is packed with vitamins, protein, fiber, magnesium, calcium, and iron.
Making this quinoa salad in advance
If you’d like to prep this quinoa salad ahead, I recommend storing the dressing separately and tossing it with your salad just before you’re ready to eat it. Alternatively, you can also toss this salad together with everything except the spinach, and then add the greens when you are ready to serve it. Otherwise, baby spinach leaves can get a little too soggy. Regular spinach is a little more sturdier and holds up better.
Looking for other quinoa salad recipes?
Then try one of these summer favourites:
Or check out my recipe archive under quinoa recipes for more inspiration!
Quinoa Salad with Tomato, Cucumber and Spinach
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 1 cup tri-color quinoa, rinsed (200 g)
- 2-3 baby cucumbers (or one English cucumber), seeded, diced
- 300 g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
- 3 handfuls baby spinach (100 g)
- 1 small bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
For the dressing:
- freshly squeezed juice from 2 lemons
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or tamari)
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
Method
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To cook the quinoa: Combine the rinsed quinoa and double the amount of water in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then decrease the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook until the quinoa has absorbed all of the water, about 15 minutes (or according to package instructions). Remove from heat, cover, and let the quinoa stand for 5 minutes. Use a fork to fluff. Transfer to a large serving bowl to cool.
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In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, honey, soy sauce, oil and ginger.
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Add the dressing to the cooled quinoa. Toss to combine. Then add the cucumber, tomato, spinach and cilantro and toss again to incorporate. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- This salad makes a great bring along to your next barbecue or picnic. If preparing ahead of time, I recommend adding the dressing as soon as you are ready to serve. Alternatively, you could toss everything together ahead time except the spinach. Add the spinach directly before serving to avoid soggy leaves.
- I used a a tri-color blend of quinoa for this recipe, but have also made it with only red and black quinoa which also makes it look a little more interesting. Otherwise white quinoa is also fine!
- This salad is easily adapted to become vegan. Simply replace the honey with maple syrup.
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