Veggie Quinoa Salad

Here is a recipe for Veggie Quinoa Salad with pumpkin and carrots. It is easy to make, colorful, and perfect for everyday use or house party.

A simple and delicious salad made with quinoa. I think it’s a visually good-looking salad that makes you want to eat it right now!

In this post, I explain not only how to make the salad also the basic knowledge of quinoa for beginners so hope you will learn something new and stay with me till the end.

If you just want to check the recipe, please scroll toward the end.

What Is Quinoa??

Quinoa is a whole grain originally from South America. Most of quinoa in Japan are from Peru and Bolivia.

In Japan, it has been featured as a superfood on TV and in the media, so it is becoming popular, especially among people who are mindful of their eating habits or on a diet.

Notable is its high nutritional value

It contains particularly high-quality proteins, and compared to polished rice, quinoa has more than twice the amount of protein.

Click here to learn more about Quinoa.

How To Cook Quinoa

How to cook is super easy and only take 10 minutes.

1. Put the quinoa in a pot, add twice the amount of water or plenty of water to cover the quinoa and turn the heat on.
2. Bring it to a boil, turn it low and cook it for about 10 minutes. If the water get dried out while cooking, add a little water.
3. Look at it closely and see the tiny white spirals come out, it’s a sign that it’s done. Drain the water or cook until water dried out.

If you don’t taste good, please wash it before cooking next time. Since quinoa contains saponin which is bitter element, washing it off make the taste better.

The grain is so tiny, please use a fine mesh sieve.

4 ways to eat quinoa

Here are my favorite ways of eating quinoa that you can easily try at home.

• Add to salad: I think this is the most popular way to eat. Quinoa has a plain taste, so it goes well with various vegetables. Just add the boiled quinoa to raw or boiled vegetables and make a wholesome, delicious salad
• Add to rice: Add to rice and cook together. I usually cook 1/2 cup of quinoa and 1 1/2 cup of rice.
• Add to soup: Add to tomato soup or cream soup to increase the volume. Either you can boil it with vegetables or add boiled quinoa later.
• Add to hamgabu: For vegan/vegetarians, it is great way to add to a hambagu(hamburger steak) instead of meat. I will make a recipe later.

Ingredients for Veggie Quinoa Salad

Here is ingredients for the salad.

• Quinoa　>> I use white quinoa from Peru
• Pumpkin　>> I use Japanese kabocha. If you can find it in your local store, try it.
• Carrot　>> I use red color carrot but any type of carrots are ok
• Green Leaves　>> I put baby leaf for decoration, but sprout and lettuce or any green leaves are good

How to Make Veggie Quinoa Salad – Step By Step

It’s too simple to explain, but I’ll show you how to make quinoa salad.

1. Cut Vegetables　>> Cut pumpkin and carrot into bite size and steam(or boil) in a pot for 7-10 minutes
2. Cook Quinoa　>> Put quinoa in a pot, add twice the amount of water, bring to a boil over medium heat, turn to low heat and cook for about 10 minutes
3. Mix All　>> Mix pumpkin, carrot and quinoa in a bowl, serve on a plate and top with green leaves

Please pour some your favorite dressing over and enjoy. If it’s a tasty pumpkin, you don’t even need to put anything on it.

Storage is 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

By the way, leftover quinoa can be frozen. Put it in the freezer bag and keep it in the freezer for about one month.

It is convenient to have frozen quinoa as you can put it on a salad or soup easily after thawing.

Variations of Quinoa Salad

If you make my veggie quinoa salad, change the ingredients to seasonal vegetables or leftovers from your refrigerator and enjoy the variations of quinoa salad. Here is my recommendation.

• Quinoa Salad with Avocado and Tomato : Mix with salt, lemon and olive oil, this is refreshing salad which is perfect for summer
• Quinoa Salad with Lettuce and Sprout: Mix with Japanese-style salad dressing and create a super green salad
• Quinoa Salad with boiled lentils and boiled eggs: Mix with cream salad dressing, this is best hearty salad for dinner

Thank you for taking time to read my blog♡ If you’ve tried this recipe(or any other recipe on the blog), please give it a star rating below!

Also feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I love hearing from you!

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