This Summer Berry Quinoa Salad is my go to summer recipe. It’s quick, refreshing, healthy, and delicious!
An Atypical American Salad
I love salad, but I’m not the biggest fan of your typical American salad. Too often I find they consist of flavorless lettuce, a few equally unimpressive toppings, and then drenched in an overpowering dressing. On the contrary, I have been very impressed with salads in other countries. Many of them consist entirely of vegetables or fruit, containing no lettuce at all. In addition, many countries favor light dressings, such as a lemon vinaigrette, or light herbs to accentuate the simple and true flavors in their salad.
This leads me to emphasize using seasonal ingredients. Anybody can make seasonal ingredients taste good. I mean come on, they already taste their best so you shouldn’t have to do much! A handful of strawberries fresh picked during the summer will always taste better than strawberries bought from the supermarket in winter. Hence why I call this a summer recipe. It tastes amazing in the summer! Forget flavorless, gas-ripened, winter berries making it taste less than optimal. This Summer Berry Quinoa Salad will become your summer staple.
Sweet, Savory, and Simple
This recipe consists of Quinoa, berries, feta cheese, mint, and a dressing of equal parts lime juice and honey. Quinoa is a great base for this salad. It is bittersweet, slightly earthy, and has a fluffy texture with bite to it. The berries have a sweet sour flavor that gets enhanced by the honey lime dressing. The mint adds a cooling agent. The quinoa, berries, dressing, and mint create a balanced sweet and sour flavor while the addition of the feta cheese brings in a savory component. This salad tastes good because all of the flavors compliment each other in a balanced manner. The best part is that you can taste each and every ingredient simultaneously in their pure and simple form!
PrintSummer Berry Quinoa Salad
This quinoa salad is perfect for summer; it’s light, healthy, and perfect to bring on the go. It works great as a side for a barbecue, picnic, poolside, or bring it to work for lunch!
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked quinoa (rinsed)
mint leaves (4-5 cut chiffonade)
1/2 cup berries of your preference
3 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese
Dressing: 1/4 cup honey 1/4 cup lime juice
lime zest to serve
Instructions
1. Cook your quinoa on the stove, in a pressure cooker, rice cooker, or however you prefer. It is a 1:1.5 quinoa to water ratio and you cook it just as you would rice (boil for ~20 minutes until light and fluffy). Quinoa should always be rinsed before cooking to remove any traces of bitterness.
2. Cut the mint into thin ribbons, and slice the larger berries into bite size pieces.
3. Mix together honey and lime juice and toss the quinoa in the dressing
4. Top with berries, mint, feta cheese, and lime zest. Enjoy.
Flavor profiles are on point. Can’t wait for summer so I can make it again! Perfect bbq side.
★★★★★