We have became pretty close blogger buddies over the last few months while we waited for Food Fighters to air.

This Kale Quinoa Salad salad caught my eye for a number of reasons, but mostly just because it featured a wonderful looking dressing and crunchy vegetables like corn and peas that are super seasonal right now.

Asian Quinoa Salad

4 from 3 votes
Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
A simple and flavorful Asian quinoa salad from The Quinoa Habit. Perfect for a side dish or lunches!

Ingredients 

  • 1 ½ – 2 cups quinoa, cooked
  • 1 cup sweet corn
  • 1 cup peas, or snap peas
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 1 handful baby kale
  • ¼ cup cilantro
  • 2 scallions, diced
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, opt.

Dressing:

  • 3 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • ½ teaspoon ginger, grated
  • 1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

  • Whisk together ingredients for dressing and set aside.
  • Cook quinoa according to instructions. Generally, this involves two cups of water per cup of uncooked quinoa. Bring water to a simmer and add quinoa. Turn heat down to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 18-20 minutes until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let steam for 10 minutes. Fluff quinoa with a fork.
  • Meanwhile, prep all the veggies for the salad and toss them in a large bowl.
  • Pour dressing over veggies and stir to combine. Add quinoa very last and toss to combine. Serve warm or chill for later.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Plate | Calories: 789kcal | Carbohydrates: 115g | Protein: 27g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 11g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Sodium: 785mg | Potassium: 1181mg | Fiber: 15g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 4501IU | Vitamin C: 33mg | Calcium: 136mg | Iron: 8mg
Course: Salad, Side Dishes
Cuisine: Asian

Did you make this recipe?

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Kale Quinoa Salad

Making the Salad

I like The Quinoa Habit because, well, I like quinoa, but also because it kind of uses the Love your Leftovers method of making a big batch of something (quinoa in this case) and then using it to supplement meals and recipes throughout the week.

To make this Kale Quinoa Salad though, I just cooked up a batch of tri-color quinoa. There are some good tips on cooking quinoa in the book. Sometimes I add too much water to mine and it ends up being sticky rather than fluffy.

This version turned out great though and was light and fluffy!

quinoa cooked for Kale Quinoa Salad
Quinoa

Need a quick lesson on cooking quinoa? Check out my perfect quinoa instructions!

The original recipe called for frozen peas which are nice to use any time of the year, but since it’s summer now, I substituted a big handful of snap peas that I just snipped the ends off of and blanched for a minute in lightly salted, simmering water.

crunchy veg for Kale Quinoa Salad
Crunchy veg!

Preparing your vegetables while the quinoa cooks is always a good idea. I blanched the corn quickly in boiling water also and then cut it off the cob. I chopped my peas in half, grated a carrot, and roughly diced the other ingredients!

Veg prepped! - Kale Quinoa Salad
Veg prepped!

My favorite part about this Kale Quinoa Salad recipe is the dressing. It’s packed with sesame flavors and a little sweetness from some honey. It goes great with the crunchy vegetables.

If you want to start conservatively, you could add half the dressing, but I wanted all of it, for sure.

Love this dressing.
Love this dressing.

The best takeaway I learned from this recipe solved a problem I always have with quinoa salad which is quinoa clumping!

By drizzling the vegetables with the dressing and tossing that together and then folding in the quinoa last, you get a really well-distributed salad with no big lumps of quinoa.

Doing stuff in the right order really does help sometimes!

Quinoa last! - Kale Quinoa Salad
Quinoa last!

I ate about half of this Kale Quinoa Salad right away with a big old spoon, but the rest of it saved perfectly for the next few days and I snacked on it for lunch.

Really delicious, colorful, fresh, and fast!

Yum yum - Kale Quinoa Salad
Yum yum.