3 MORE Easy Healthy Quinoa Salads

Hey guys, it's Dani, and today I am sharing three super simple quinoa salad recipes with you. Now, it was about this time last year when I shared three easy, healthy quinoa salads that you all really seemed to enjoy, so I thought we were due for some new recipes. Now, if you're interested in that video, you can find a link down in the description box below. But what I'm going to be showing you today is my fresh asparagus and lemon quinoa salad, a crunchy and flavorful Asian quinoa salad, and then finally, this absolutely beautiful kale-avocado-mango-and-strawberry quinoa salad. Now, all of these recipes you will be able to find down in the description box below, and if you want to print them, I will also have links that take you over to my website where you can print the recipes as well. So can I get a big thumbs up if you are as excited as I am to get started? Now, just as a reminder, quinoa is a naturally gluten-free seed that is often grouped with the grains and is conveniently fast cooking. Every one cup of uncooked quinoa will yield three cups of cooked quinoa. So for example, if you were wanting three cups of cooked quinoa, what you would do is scoop out one cup of dry quinoa, get it into a fine mesh strainer, and then rinse it under some cold water until that water is running clear. Then get that into your pot and add two cups of filtered water. Bring the heat to high, let everything come up to a boil, and then you can reduce it down to a simmer. Pop on a lid and let it go for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all the liquid and is nice and fluffy. You will also notice when the quinoa is done that each little seed has this white little swiggle around the outside. That is the germ, and it kind of pops when the quinoa is done cooking, so it's a good indicator that your quinoa is ready to go. Now a little FYI, sometimes instead of water, people will use broth because it infuses more flavor into the quinoa. So feel free to give that a try if you're looking for even more flavor. So let's get started with our first salad. It is the asparagus lemon quinoa salad. Now you do need some roasted asparagus for this recipe, so I'm going to show you how I like to roast my asparagus first. So I have one pound of asparagus, and give it a rinse under some cold water. Make sure that it's nice and dry, and then I just trim off the tough ends. Get it onto a rimmed baking sheet, and then just season it with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Very simple. Then I pop the whole thing into a 400 degree oven and let it cook for about 10 to 12 minutes until it is nice and tender, and it's going to depend on the thickness of your asparagus, how long it's going to cook. Then just take it out of the oven and let it cool down, and once it's cool enough to handle, I just cut it into one inch pieces, and then I get to working on my dressing. So into a small bowl, or I really love to use these spouted cups, I'm going to combine two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a quarter cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice, two cloves of crushed garlic, and then some salt and pepper to taste. Whisk that all together, and set it aside, and let's assemble the salad. Into my bowl, I've got three cups of cooked quinoa, along with a can of chickpeas that I've drained and rinsed off. Rinsing the chickpeas before you use them is a good way just to wash off any excess sodium, and then we can be in charge of how much salt we want to add to the recipe or not. A quarter cup of thinly sliced scallions, and then my roasted asparagus, and a couple ounces of feta cheese. And guys, I always tell you this, but if you can, buy the feta cheese in the block rather than pre-crumbled. This way it doesn't have any anti-caking agents, and it stays really creamy, and I promise you, when it's in the block, it also has the best flavor. From here, I'm going to drizzle my dressing right over the top, and then just gently toss everything together. Then from here, you can just transfer this into your favorite serving bowl, or just put it on your plate to enjoy a serving yourself. Personally, I love to make this salad ahead of time because it holds up really well in the fridge, and it's absolutely delicious for breakfast or for lunch. You just make an over-easy or an over-medium egg, and serve it right over the top. So good. Next up is this really crunchy and delicious Asian quinoa salad. So again, I am starting with my salad dressing, and into my spouted cup, I'm adding three tablespoons of a low-sodium soy sauce. Then we've got a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil. This is a key ingredient, and a little goes a long way. Two tablespoons of fresh-squeezed lime juice, and then I have a tablespoon of cashew butter. Yes, you could absolutely do almond butter or peanut butter, just use what you have. Then I've got two tablespoons of thinly-sliced scallions, about a teaspoon of grated ginger, and a couple cloves of crushed garlic. Once you have everything in there, just whisk it together until all of those ingredients have come together, and it's really infused, and then set it aside. Now, for the body of the salad, I've got a nice big bowl, and again, I'm starting with three cups of cooked quinoa, and then to that, we're adding one cup of chopped red cabbage, one cup of cooked edamame, then I have a red bell pepper that I've chopped up, and then half a cup each of chopped radishes and chopped carrots. Then I have a quarter cup of fresh cilantro. If you don't like cilantro, you can do parsley. And then one-third cup of chopped up roasted cashews. If you're not eating the salad right away, then I would keep the cashews out and add them in right before serving, this way they stay really fresh and crunchy. Then I'm going to take that dressing, give it one more whisk, and drizzle it right over the top, and gently mix everything together. Now, from here, you can transfer it to a serving bowl, or if you want to treat it like a meal prep ingredient, maybe divide it among some small mason jars, and then store them in the fridge that way. So many options. And finally, for my third salad, I'm going to show you my kale-avocado-mango-strawberry quinoa salad. Now, this salad is really more of a green salad, and I add some quinoa to bulk it up, because I really wanted to show you guys different ways that you could use quinoa in your salad. So again, we're going to start with the salad dressing. So into my spouted cup, I have a quarter cup each of extra virgin olive oil, and then fresh squeezed lemon juice, along with one clove of crushed garlic, and some salt and pepper. It's very simple. I'm just going to whisk that all together, and then set that aside, and then here in my bowl, I have a bunch of kale that has been washed, stemmed, dried, and then cut into bite-sized pieces. So it's about eight cups in total. What I'm going to do is drizzle the dressing over the top of the kale, and then gently massage it into the kale for a minute or two. What this does is it helps to break down the tough fibers in the kale, and makes for a very tender kale salad. Plus, it infuses all of the flavor into the greens, which is delicious. Once your kale is massaged and relaxed, you're going to add in the rest of the ingredients. So I've got one cup of the cooked quinoa, along with one cup of fresh chopped mango, which is basically one mango. You can just take a mango and chop it up. One cup of halved strawberries. If you have really big strawberries, you can cut those in half. Then I have one avocado that I cut into nice, chunky-sized pieces, and a couple tablespoons of pepitas, aka roasted pumpkin seeds. These are totally optional, but I really love the crunch that it brings to the salad. Then I'm just going to gently toss this all together, and then it is ready to serve. So you could put this into your favorite serving bowl, or on individual plates, but I really love making this one for friends and family as well, because it is so beautiful and bright and fresh that everybody loves this salad. And I didn't want to add another ingredient, but if you wanted to, a little bit of crumbled feta cheese is also absolutely delicious with this combination as well. So there you have it, my friends. Three new, super simple quinoa salad recipes for you. Now, of course, I want to hear from you. Which of these salads do you think you will try first? Come on down to the description box below and let me know. And when you do try them, make sure you tag me on Instagram and on Facebook so I can see all the beautiful, clean and deliciousness you're whipping up in your very own kitchens. And my friends, if you love yourself some salads, I will also leave a link down in the description box below. I have an e-book where I have the 15 top clean and delicious salads from my website, so that is also available to you if you want to work some more salads into your life. Now, if you haven't already, please take a moment to subscribe, like and share this video with anybody else you know who wants to make healthy eating easy. Thank you guys so much for watching. I'm Dani Spees and I will see you back here next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers!