📋 Mediterranean Quinoa salad (vegan) recipe

quinoa salad with spoon sticking out, in white bowl

5 from 3 votes

📋 Mediterranean Quinoa salad (vegan) recipe

This healthy and easy Mediterranean Quinoa Salad is a Moroccan variation on Tabouli, made with gluten-free quinoa. It's also Weight Watchers friendly, dairy-free and can be made in under 30 minutes. It's a cold salad that's the perfect side dish for a BBQ and makes a great lunch box meal too!

Course lunch, Salad

Cuisine Greek, moroccan

Keyword easy, quinoa, salad

Special Diet Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Servings people

Calories 186kcal

Author Terri Gilson

Equipment

Ingredients

4 cups quinoa
1 cucumber long english
2 tomatoes
⅓ cup red onion/white onion
4 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoon white vinegar
2 tablespoon lemon juice *** fresh lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro
2 tablespoon fresh mint
¼ teaspoon black pepper (optional)

Garnish

additional mint (optional)
additional cilantro (optional)

US Customary - Metric

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Instructions

Cook Quinoa as directed on box. While quinoa is cooking, chop cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and herbs.
Put quinoa in bowl and add olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and herbs. Stir in cucumber, tomato, onion and herbs. Serve or chill for 30 minutes and serve.

Garnish

Garnish with additional mint and basil, if desired.

Notes

Expert Recipe Tips:

Cool the Quinoa: Never mix hot quinoa with your fresh vegetables. It will wilt the herbs and make the cucumbers mushy. Spreading the cooked quinoa on a large plate or baking sheet helps it cool to room temperature in minutes.
Uniform Dicing: For the best mouthfeel, try to dice your cucumbers and tomatoes to be roughly the same size as a chickpea. This ensures you get a bit of everything in every bite.
The Herb Hack: To quickly chop mint and cilantro, bunch them into a tight ball and use a sharp chef's knife to slice through. Don't over-chop, or they will turn into a paste!
Salt the Tomatoes: If you have an extra 5 minutes, salt your chopped tomatoes in a separate bowl and drain the excess juice before adding them to the salad. This prevents the salad from becoming "soupy" the next day.

Storage:

Store leftover quinoa salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. After this, the veggies start to get mushy. It's best to make it right before serving.

If you want to make it a day in advance, keep the dressing, the quinoa, and the vegetables in separate containers and combine just before serving. If you are packing it for lunch, it can be mixed together the night before.

These ingredients do not stand up to freezing. However, you can freeze the quinoa on its own for up to 3 months.

🔢WW Points & Calories in a Quinoa Greek Salad

This vegan quinoa salad recipe is Weight Watchers friendly @ 5 WW points per serving (¾ cup)

This cucumber tomato quinoa salad has 186 calories for about ¾ cup.

Nutrition