Hearty Quinoa Salad – Meatless Monday Recipe

To be completely honest (which I always try to be with you guys), we haven’t been participating in Meatless Monday for the last few weeks. I think it was a combination of someone always being sick in our house for what seems like an eternity and just kind of forgetting while meal planning.

Now that we are all healthy (knock on wood!), we are back on track with our Meatless Monday goal. You can read about why we decided as a family to join the Meatless Monday movement and our reasons haven’t changed.

We kicked off our meat-free meal focus last week with this Hearty Quinoa Salad. This is one of those meals that I just know will become a staple around here. It’s easy to make, super filling, and makes great leftovers!

One of my goals for the new year is to cut back our family’s grocery budget to save some money. Finding budget friendly meals that our family loves has become my mission in life. This Hearty Quinoa Salad costs less than $3 per serving to make. That means I can feed my whole family lunch  for under $12. I consider that a win.

Nutritionally, I really like that this dish provides a well balanced dish. You get protein from quinoa, heart healthy fats from the nuts and avocado as well as vitamin & minerals from the cranberries, parsley and orange. The simple dressing really finishes off the dish nicely without being overpowering.

It’s also completely customizable to what you have in the pantry/fridge, so you can use up leftover ingredients. It would be great with some grilled salmon, canned tuna, leftover chicken, almonds, or dried apricots. Any dish that works well with different ingredients is always a good recipe to have on hand.

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Hearty Quinoa Salad - Meatless Monday Recipe

Hearty Quinoa Salad full of flavor from dried cranberries, avocado, oranges, and walnuts.

Course lunch, side/salad

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword healthy lunch, mediterranean, power bowl, quinoa

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 1 serving

Author Brynn at The Domestic Dietitian

Ingredients

• 1 cup Quinoa prepared
• 1/4 cup Dried Cranberries unsweetened
• 1/2 Avocado diced
• 1/2 Orange segmented and chopped
• 1/4 cup Walnuts chopped
• 2 Tbsp Red Onion diced
• 1/3 cup Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

• Prepare the quinoa per the instructions on the package. Allow to cool before use
• Combine the quinoa, cranberries, avocado, orange, walnuts and red onion in a bowl.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• Slowly drizzle the dressing over the quinoa salad
• Toss and enjoy!

Check out some other Meatless Monday recipe ideas below…

Latin Black Bean Soup

Tomato While Bean Soup

Mediterranean Plant Protein Bowl

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage

French Lentil Stew