Sun Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad

This Sun Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad is so easy to make and full of Mediterranean flavor! It’s healthy, naturally gluten free and perfect to make when you need a quick side dish to serve with dinner.

Does anyone else struggle to come up with quick and easy salads or side dishes to serve with dinner? I find myself not even bothering with making a side dish unless company is coming over. However, that’s changed since I came up with this Sun Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad. It was effortless to make, used a lot of pantry ingredients and had tons of flavor!

What Do I Need to Make the Quinoa Salad?

• Quinoa
• Sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
• Red onion
• Feta cheese
• Flat leaf parsley
• Pine nuts 
• Lemon
• Dijon mustard
• Honey or maple syrup
• Olive oil

The first step to making the salad is to cook the quinoa. If you’ve never cooked quinoa it’s very easy, more so than rice in my opinion.

How to Cook Perfect Quinoa

1. Quinoa cooks at a 1:2 ratio with water or broth. So, in the case of this salad you’ll use 1 cup of dry quinoa and 2 cups of water.
2. Take the dry quinoa, put it in a mesh strainer and rinse it thoroughly under water. This will remove the outer protective coating, which is what can make quinoa taste bitter if it isn’t rinsed.
3. Dump the rinsed quinoa into a medium sized saucepan and pour in the water. Add in a big pinch of salt and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, cover with a lid and reduce the heat to medium-low.
4. Simmer the quinoa for 15-20 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat and let the quinoa rest in the saucepan with the lid on for 5 minutes.
5. Fluff with a fork and add additional salt if needed.

Once the quinoa is cooked, let it cool to room temperature. It can also be made a day or two ahead of time and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator. Prep the remaining salad ingredients and add them in with the quinoa.

The final step is to make the lemon vinaigrette. I like to make my vinaigrette in a small mason jar so I can skip the whisking and just shake it up instead. The vinaigrette gets poured over the salad and then everything is stirred together. Taste it for seasoning before serving and that’s all there is to it!

What Can I Use Instead of Quinoa?

If you don’t like quinoa I recommend using couscous or farro. Be aware that if you’re wanting this salad to be gluten free then you’ll want to stick with quinoa since neither couscous nor farro are. 

What to Serve with Quinoa Salad

• Everything Bagel Chicken Tenders
• Sheet Pan Pesto Salmon and Potatoes
• Baked Chicken Thighs
• Portobello Romesco Burgers

More Quinoa Salads

Cranberry Apple Quinoa Salad

Summer Quinoa Salad

Mexican Quinoa Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette