Quinoa salad with feta and beetroot
This delicious quinoa salad with feta and beetroot is super easy to make with ready cooked beetroot and so good!
Quinoa salad with feta and beetroot
There are a few flavors that go so well together that I keep adding them into dishes. And for me that is the combination of feta and beetroot. The sweet taste of the beetroot combined with the salty feta is just so tasty! And add some quinoa to it and you have a quinoa beet salad you’ll be wanting to make over and over again!
What can you find in this post:
As with many of my older recipes I have recently given this beet quinoa salad a makeover. It was long overdue as the photo did not make me want to eat it and that’s rule number one in food photography. You need to want it! So time for a do-over of this quinoa salad recipe.
How to make the quinoa salad
For making this easy salad you can use red beet or golden beet. I don’t know how it is around your part of the world but here you can only get the red beets in the precooked format. So I chose cooked beets for this recipe. Obviously you can also use raw beets and roast beets in the oven before adding them to the salad but that does take more time. In general roasting beets takes roughly an hour. If you don’t have an hour extra to spare go for the precooked type.
The only other part that needs to be done is you need to make the cooked quinoa. I cook quinoa in a separate pan. You can add cook the quinoa in chicken stock for extra flavor.
Putting it together
Now the quinoa salad with feta is a matter of combining all the ingredients into one salad. I take a large bowl and add the cooked quinoa, the salty feta cheese, pomegranate seeds and the chopped beet to it. In terms of crunch you can add roasted pine nuts as I did here but pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds would also be a great addition.
For the dressing you simply mix 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise (or go for a funkier alternative with aioli), sweet chili sauce, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Mix all the dressing ingredients well and add pepper and salt if needed.
Mix the dressing through the quinoa salad and serve. The salad keeps well, although you will find that the colors of the beetroot bleed into the rest of the salad, making it a very pink affair. Not an issue in terms of flavor so keeping it and bringing it for lunch the next day is definitely a great option.
Additions and variations
As I already mentioned above you can easily add other things to the delicious salad. I like switching the feta up with goat cheese for instance. Sometimes I add a little bit of maple syrup to the dressing although that might make it too sweet. Since the beets are also already pretty sweet you don’t want it to overpower.
Adding leafy greens to the quinoa salad with feta is also a great addition. Think about adding some baby spinach or lamb’s lettuce. Not only for a pop of color but also adding some fresh ingredients is always a good idea. Adding some fresh herbs such as basil or parsley is also delicious.
You can also add some sweet potato instead of beetroot. Different taste, but also quite good! Also – and I know I am weird sometimes – but I like to add fruit to my quinoa salad such as in this one for a quinoa salad with melon. You could add some apple to this one as well!
Quinoa salad with feta and beetroot
Ingredients
- 150 gr quinoa
- 50 gr feta to taste – or smoked chicken
- pinenuts
- 100 gr pomegranate seeds
- 1,5 precooked beetroot
For the dressing
- 3 tbsp of aioli
- sweet chili sauce about 1 tbsp
- bit of lemonjuice
- pepper
- salt
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp oil
- Cook the quinoa according to package instructions (usually about 15 minutes) with a little salt. Leave to drain and cool.
- Roast the pinenuts in a dry frying pan and set aside. Crumble the feta or cut the chicken
- Grate the beetroot coarsely and put into a large bowl. As soon as the quinoa is cooled down enough add the beetroot and the pomegranate. Add the largest part of your feta in at this point as well. keep some behind for garnish
- Make a dressing by mixing the ingredients. Make sure you add whatever is needed to complement the taste of the aioli. Mine was homemade so that will be a different taste from storebought. Taste after each addition if it needs anything else. Too sour? Add a little bit of honey or a little more of the chili sauce
- Put a little bit of your quinoa in a small bowl and add a tiny bit of the dressing and taste if they go well together. If they do you can ad the rest of the dressing to the quinoa. Sprinkle with the rest of the feta and the roasted pinenuts
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
Quinoa salad with feta and beetroot
Ingredients
- 150 gr quinoa
- 50 gr feta to taste - or smoked chicken
- pinenuts
- 100 gr pomegranate seeds
- 1,5 precooked beetroot
For the dressing
- 3 tbsp of aioli
- sweet chili sauce about 1 tbsp
- bit of lemonjuice
- pepper
- salt
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp oil
- Cook the quinoa according to package instructions (usually about 15 minutes) with a little salt. Leave to drain and cool.
- Roast the pinenuts in a dry frying pan and set aside. Crumble the feta or cut the chicken
- Grate the beetroot coarsely and put into a large bowl. As soon as the quinoa is cooled down enough add the beetroot and the pomegranate. Add the largest part of your feta in at this point as well. keep some behind for garnish
- Make a dressing by mixing the ingredients. Make sure you add whatever is needed to complement the taste of the aioli. Mine was homemade so that will be a different taste from storebought. Taste after each addition if it needs anything else. Too sour? Add a little bit of honey or a little more of the chili sauce
- Put a little bit of your quinoa in a small bowl and add a tiny bit of the dressing and taste if they go well together. If they do you can ad the rest of the dressing to the quinoa. Sprinkle with the rest of the feta and the roasted pinenuts
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
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