Deck your plate for the holidays with this festive quinoa salad featuring pomegranate and orange. it’s a beautiful, healthy, delicious recipe elegant enough for the season’s celebrations and simple enough for a simple weeknight dinner.
A simple creamy dressing made with a vinaigrette base along with Greek yogurt and date syrup adds even more flavor to this simple holiday quinoa salad that comes together with just a handful of healthy ingredients.
This pomegranate orange quinoa recipes makes 4 servings, each with 146 calories, 26g carbs, 3.1g fat and 4.8g protein.
I pair this cold quinoa salad with a quality protein to make sure I’m hitting my 25-30g per meal goal. Tonight, I made cod that was simply seasoned and air-fried.
TIPS FOR FESTIVE QUINOA SALAD:
Quinoa: You can use any color quinoa (eg: white, red, black, mixed). Also, consider batch-cooking quinoa and keeping in the freezer in 1-cup portions. This makes creating quick recipes with this healthy whole grain (really a seed), even easier – you can read my quinoa prep post HERE.
Pomegranate & Oranges: Use fresh or pre-packaged, it really only comes down to your preference and time to prep. If using either from a jar, tub, or can, choose “no sugar added” and drain off the juice so the quinoa isn’t soggy later. However, do reserve about 1 tablespoon of pomegranate juice for the dressing (or if fresh, drain it from the bowl after getting the arils out).
Dressing: This recipe makes just enough for the salad, and I prefer underdressed salads. If you think it needs more, double the dressing recipe and pour it on a little at a time – going by taste. Also, if you’d like to turn this from a vegetarian quinoa recipe into a vegan quinoa recipe, then use a substitute for the Greek yogurt, such as a plant-based yogurt, tahini or a natural nut butter.
Optional Ideas: You can swap out the pistachios for a chopped nut of choice like almonds, pecans – or none at all. Also, I love to sprinkle mine with feta cheese for a salty contrast with the sweet.
Make Ahead & Storing: This recipe will get a little soggy if you make the day before. To save time, it’s best to prep the ingredients (cook quinoa, chop spinach, peel/seed fruit, etc) the day before. Then simply toss everything together and shake up the dressing – it will literally just take 2 minutes! You can store leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days. Still tastes yummy, but the crunch of the nuts and crisp of the spinach will be gone.
This is one of my favorite creative quinoa salad ideas – for it’s flavor, fast-fixing, and festive appearance! Enjoy!
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Transform plain quinoa into something to celebrate for theholiday season! Pomegranate, orange segments and pistachios bejewel this quick,easy and nourishing vegetarian salad that is equally beautiful for a dinnerparty or quick lunch!
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup chopped fresh baby spinach
- ¾ cup pomegranate arils juice drained & reserved if packaged container
- ¾ cup mandarin orange segments packed in water or juice or fresh
- ¼ cup shelled pistachio kernels coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon juice reserved from pomegranate or orange segments
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon date syrup
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
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Add quinoa, spinach, pomegranate and orange segments (cut in half crosswise) into medium bowl.
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In small mason jar, shake together dressing ingredients until emulsified.
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Pour dressing over salad and gently stir.
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Before serving, stir in pistachios.
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Best eaten right after making to keep the texture of the lettuce and pistachios. But you can store leftovers in fridge for up to 3 days and it’s still good.
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