Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad

4.60 from 22 votes

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This Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad is a delicious and healthy salad to make this spring and summer! Loaded with quinoa, goat cheese, strawberries, spinach and pistachios, then tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. 

Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad with goat cheese and pistachios in a white serving bowl with serving spoons next to the bowl and lemon vinaigrette in a bowl behind the salad.Today felt like a good day to post a fresh, spring, Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad! After all the snow and record low temperatures we had last week I’m in need of sunshine, warm weather and something besides soup and comfort food. It felt more like January than the middle of April.

What Do I Need to Make the Quinoa Salad? 

  • Cooked Quinoa
  • Baby Spinach
  • Strawberries
  • Goat cheese
  • Pistachios
  • Lemon
  • Honey
  • Dijon Mustard
  • Olive oil

This salad is a great side dish to have with your favorite protein or you can add protein to the salad to make it a main dish. Grilled chicken would be my first choice, but grilled steak would be a great option as well.

closeup photo of Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad with goat cheese crumbles and pistachios.

How to Make the Salad

This salad takes almost no time to make if you cook your quinoa ahead of time. If you don’t cook it ahead of time, be sure to allow enough time for it to cool completely. You can read my process on how to cook perfect quinoa in the blog post for this Sun Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad.

  1. In a small jar or bowl combine the lemon zest, juice, dijon mustard, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper. Whisk or shake the ingredients until emulsified.
  2. In a large bowl add the cooked quinoa, spinach, sliced strawberries, crumbled goat cheese and pistachios. 
  3. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss everything together until it’s coated. Then it’s ready to serve.

Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad with goat cheese and pistachios in a serving bowl with spoons.

Can I Make This Salad Ahead of Time? 

This salad is best assembled just before serving. The spinach will likely wilt if it’s sitting in the vinaigrette overnight. I also prefer the texture of the strawberries when they haven’t been sitting in the vinaigrette for too long. You can prep all of the ingredients ahead of time. For instance, cook and chill the quinoa, slice the strawberries and make the vinaigrette.

Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad with goat cheese and pistachios in a serving bowl.

Ingredient Substitutions

This salad is easily customizable depending on what’s available at the store and your personal preferences.

  • Baby spinach can be substituted with baby kale or arugula.
  • Goat cheese can be substituted with feta cheese or mini mozzarella balls.
  • Pistachios can be swapped with toasted almonds, pecans or walnuts.
  • If you don’t like quinoa try using farro, millet or couscous.
  • If the strawberries don’t look good at the store, don’t settle. Substitute with blackberries, raspberries or a combination of berries.

Closeup photo of Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad in serving bowl with goat cheese and pistachios.This Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad is perfect to make this spring and summer when berries are at their peak. It will also be a lovely salad to make for Mother’s Day next month. It can be served with brunch or dinner.

Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad Pinterest Collage.

More Quinoa Salads

Summer Quinoa Salad in white bowl with spoon. Salad has chickpeas, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and basilSummer Quinoa Salad

Cranberry Apple Quinoa Salad in wooden bowl with serving spoons. Small bowl of vinaigrette behind the salad.Cranberry Apple Quinoa Salad

Mexican Quinoa Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette in black bowl with a small bowl of vinaigrette and squeezed limes in the background.Mexican Quinoa Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette

4.60 from 22 votes

Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad

Prep: 20 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
This Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad is loaded with quinoa, goat cheese, strawberries, spinach, pistachios, and tossed in a lemon vinaigrette. 
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Ingredients 

Salad

  • 2 cups cooked and cooled quinoa
  • 5 ounces baby spinach
  • 2 cups sliced strawberries
  • 2 ounces crumbled goat cheese
  • 1/3 cup shelled pistachios

Vinaigrette

  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions 

  • Combine all of the ingredients for the salad in a large bowl. In a small bowl whisk together the ingredients for the vinaigrette. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss everything together until combined. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 245kcalCarbohydrates: 35gProtein: 9gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 7mgSodium: 203mgFiber: 5gSugar: 12g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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4.60 from 22 votes (21 ratings without comment)

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3 Comments

  1. Betsy says:

    5 stars
    This recipe is so good I could live on it for months!

    1. Danae says:

      Hi Betsy, it’s good to hear you love this Strawberry Spinach Quinoa Salad. It’s one of my favorites too!

  2. Carrie says:

    My mother in law and I made this for lunch today. Such a light and refreshing salad. The vinaigrette was AMAZING. We used maple syrup instead of honey, but think we will try making it with honey. I am going to try it on other salads just to see. Thank you for sharing.