Asian Quinoa Salad
I have been trying to incorporate more quinoa into our diet, so when I ran across this Asian quinoa salad recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod, I bookmarked it right away. This easy quinoa salad was quick and simple to make and tasted wonderful. I loved the different flavors, textures, and colors in this beautiful salad, and it paired nicely with a cucumber salad and Asian turkey burgers.
Asian Quinoa Salad
Salad:
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 cup water
- Dash of salt
- ½ cup red cabbage, chopped
- ¾ cup frozen cooked & shelled edamame, thawed
- 1 baby red bell pepper, chopped
- ¼ cup carrots, shredded
- ½ cucumber, seeded and diced
Vinaigrette:
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1-2 tsp water
- 1 tbsp green onion, chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 ½ tsp toasted sesame seeds
- ¼ tsp ginger, grated
- Dash of red pepper flakes
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
How to Make an Asian Quinoa Salad
Cook the quinoa by adding water, quinoa, and salt to a medium saucepan and bringing to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.
Place the quinoa in a large bowl and let it cool completely for 10-15 minutes.
Finish the salad by adding the cabbage, edamame, red pepper, carrots, and cucumber to the cooled quinoa. Set aside.
Make the vinaigrette by combining the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, water, green onions, cilantro, sesame seeds, ginger, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper to taste in a bowl. Whisk until well combined.
Dress the salad by pouring the well-whisked vinaigrette over the quinoa salad, to taste, then tossing until evenly coated with dressing. Taste and re-season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, if needed.
Serve and enjoy.
Equipment
Ingredients
Salad:
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 cup water
- Dash of salt
- ½ cup red cabbage chopped
- ¾ cup frozen cooked & shelled edamame thawed
- 1 baby red bell pepper chopped
- ¼ cup carrots shredded
- ½ cucumber seeded and diced
Dressing:
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1-2 tsp water
- 1 tbsp chopped green onion
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- 1½ tsp sesame seeds
- ¼ tsp ginger grated
- Dash of red pepper flakes
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa by adding water, quinoa, and salt to a medium saucepan and bringing to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.
- Place the quinoa in a large bowl and let it cool completely for 10-15 minutes.
- Finish the salad by adding the cabbage, edamame, red pepper, carrots, and cucumber to the cooled quinoa. Set aside.
- Make the vinaigrette by combining the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, water, green onions, cilantro, sesame seeds, ginger, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper to taste in a bowl. Whisk until well combined.
- Dress the salad by pouring the well-whisked vinaigrette over the quinoa salad, to taste, then tossing until evenly coated with dressing. Taste and re-season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, if needed.
- Serve and enjoy.
I love how fresh this salad is, and I especially love the addition of edamame!
Such a pretty and summer-y salad with so many textures! Delicious Pam.
It looks so pretty…. I can only imagine how delicious it was!!
It’s hard to please everyone at once. But at least they tried it! And it is colorful and pretty, which is a plus.
The salad sound delicious! My son isn’t a big fan of quinoa, but I think I’ll have to experiment with different flavor combos…
This would be great for lunches all week long, if it lasts! So colorful and delicious sounding!
so this is what I can do with leftover quinoa!
excellent idea!
This sounds nice and healthy and has great color to it.
i made a dish similar to this recently but with peanut ginger dressing! Love this more Asian twist.
So colourful and appetizing! I love the add of edamame in this Asian flavoured quinoa salad. Excellent, Pam!
This is awesome!A salad packed with nutrients!
Kisses!
This would make a wonderful full meal salad with some added tofu or shredded rotisserie chicken. Yum.
This salad is a rainbow! Looks beautiful and sounds delicious and healthy too.
This salad is excellent-what a great recipe. My mother loved it and my husband requested I make it for the next work potluck. I forgot to buy carrots, but I did have some radishes and they were a great addition! Thanks for the recipe!
I really loved this!!! It was so good. But I would recommend to eat it by the next day. I tried to make a double recipe of it for lunches for the week and it got really soggy by day 3. That’s what I get for trying to save time and only cook one day a week 🙁
I have made this salad several times. I have never had quiona before but decided to make a better one than Stater Brothers sells in their deli case!
Mine was absolutely delicious. So many flavors, so fresh. It also makes such a gorgeous presentation when you serve it.
This will be served a lot this summer for a nice, cool side dish on a warm evening. Thank you so much for the recipe.