This is the quinoa salad I come back to time and again! After testing different veggie ratios, the Mediterranean flavor in this one hits the perfect balance of fresh, bright, briny, and satisfying… and it actually holds up for days.
Why This Quinoa Salad Works
- Everything is chopped small. The veggies, herbs, and feta are chopped similar in size, so you get a balanced bite with every flavor and texture. And I sure do love a uniform looking salad!
- It’s designed to hold up for days. And more importantly, it still tastes great after days! The key is using sturdy veggies and a punchy vinaigrette that doesn’t loose it’s oomph in the fridge.
- It’s great for gatherings. My friends and family always look forward to this dish for potlucks, picnics, and BBQs. It disappears fast every time!
I sure do love a meal-pre friendly salad! And I’ve been enjoying this quinoa salad on repeat lately. Let’s just say it’s anything but boring with all those delicious Mediterranean flavors—so yum!
Some of you may recall my Mediterranean chickpea salad and lentil salad (both also delicious), but this time I’m using quinoa as the base to broaden my options for a plant-based protein salad. But, having said that, on some days I’ll also add in additional animal protein sources, like my diced baked chicken or some leftover flaked baked salmon. It really is quite versatile!
Many Downshifters have requested a quinoa salad over the years, and I’ll admit, it’s quite shocking that it’s taken me this long to get one on the website. So, I hope you finally love it as much as I do!
Quinoa Salad Ingredients
- Quinoa: I’m using a tri-color quinoa for added texture and color, but you can use any quinoa in this recipe.
- Vegetables: I love a mix of colorful bell peppers for sweetness and crunch, an English cucumber for its crisp texture and minimal seeds, and a bit of red onion for a sharp bite.
- Capers: These little briny pops add so much flavor! And bonus, no chopping is necessary. But if you don’t have capers, you can also swap in halved or quartered olives (buttery Castelvetrano olives are my favorite!)
- Fresh parsley: Flat-leaf parsley is such a great addition to salads for that herby touch.
- Feta cheese: Block feta in brine is key here! It holds its shape better and doesn’t dry out like pre-crumbled versions.
- Lemon vinaigrette: It’s my go-to mix of olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, honey, garlic, salt, and black pepper. I use lemon vinaigrette on several salads on this website—it’s my staple dressing!
How To Make This Quinoa Salad
First, make the dressing. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper to a small bowl and whisk until fully emulsified. You can also add everything to a small jar and shake it up. That’s my favorite dressing shortcut!
Second, cook and cool the quinoa. Add the quinoa and water to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook, covered, for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water. Once it’s done, remove it from the heat and let it steam with the lid on. This helps it finish cooking evenly and prevents it from becoming mushy.
Tip: To cool the quinoa and prevent the grains from clumping, spread them out on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes. This is the same method I mention in my Healthy Meal Prep cookbook for meal prepping rice!
Third, make the salad. Make sure the quinoa is fully cooled before adding the veggies. Otherwise, they’ll soften and lose their crunch. Then, add the quinoa to a large mixing bowl along with the bell peppers, cucumber, red onion, capers, parsley, and feta. Drizzle the lemon vinaigrette on top (I usually add half to three-quarters of it) and toss until everything is well combined. You can serve the salad right away, or let it chill in the fridge to let the flavors meld together even more.
How I Store This Salad
- In the fridge: Store the quinoa salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 4 to 5 days. If you’re making it ahead of time, you can also keep the dressing separate and toss everything together just before serving for the freshest texture.
- Serving after storing: This quinoa salad holds up really well, but if you notice it’s absorbed most of the dressing after a day or two, toss it with a drizzle of olive oil or a squeeze of lemon juice. And if you’re serving this for guests, I like to sprinkle a little extra feta and fresh parsley on top right before serving.
More Salad Recipes
- Greek Salad: The best Greek side dish!
- Caprese Salad: Perfect for summer entertaining.
- Tuscan Tuna Salad: Mediterranean flavor with a seafood spin.
- Or give these other salad recipes or Mediterranean recipes a try!
If you make this Mediterranean quinoa salad recipe, let me know how it turns out in the comments below! Your review will help other readers in the community. And if you’d like to see more healthy food inspiration and exclusive content, join my free email community here.
Description
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
For the quinoa salad
- 1 cup quinoa, uncooked and rinsed
- 2 cups water
- 2 bell peppers, small diced (any color works—I used red and yellow)
- 1 English cucumber, small diced
- ½ medium red onion, small diced
- ¼ cup capers, drained
- ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh parsley
- 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
For the lemon vinaigrette
- â…“ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon honey
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Make the dressing. Add the oil, lemon juice, mustard, honey, garlic, salt and pepper to a small bowl and whisk together until fully emulsified. Alternatively, you can add the ingredients to a small jar and shake together. Set aside.
- Cook the quinoa. Add the quinoa and water to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook, covered, for about 15 minutes, or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water. Remove from the heat and allow the quinoa to steam, covered, for another 5 minutes. To cool the quinoa, spread it out on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes.
- Make the salad. Once the quinoa is completely cooled, add it to a large mixing bowl with the bell peppers, cucumber, red onion, capers, parsley, and feta. Drizzle the lemon vinaigrette on top (you can use as much or as little as you'd like, though I tend to use it all).
- Serve or chill. Serve the quinoa salad immediately or chill in the fridge to let the flavors meld together further.
Nutrition
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How I Tested This Recipe
When I first made this salad I left the veggies a bit bigger and chunkier, like on my Mediterranean chickpea salad. And you can certainly do that. But truth be told, I enjoyed it a bit more when everything was chopped pretty small. It just felt like you got more variety of flavors in every spoonful. I also added some diced avocado right before serving. You know this Cali girl loves to add avocado to pretty much everything! 😉
Excellent!
Easy to prepare!
Flavorful.
I did have to substitute a couple ingredients, but they didn’t change the flavor desired.
I added chicken breast to my salad.
Loved it!!
Thank you!!
Yay! Thrilled to hear you enjoyed this quinoa salad as much as I do, Yvonne!
Absolutely LOVE this recipe (though I did add some finely diced cherry tomatoes.)
I can see me making this often!
Love the added cherry tomatoes! Enjoy, Karen!
Very delicious and easy to make. Added bite sized pieces of chicken breast as well as avocado. Will make this recipe often.
Always love adding chicken and avocado to this recipe. Enjoy, Kathy!
A friend made this and let me taste it. I went to the moon over it. I can hear my printer printing it out now. How delicious!
Glad you got to try it, Susie! I hope you enjoy this in your own kitchen now :)
Absolutely fabulous!!!
Added some BBG chicken breast and was so delicious!
Will definitely be making this again with shrimps or BBG pork .
And the vinaigrette was also fabulous, so nice to have a delicious and healthy recipe..
Thank you for sharing, cheers!
Amazing! I’m so glad this quinoa salad came together perfectly with chicken this time around, Bonnie.
A perfect blend of flavors and textures come together in the amazing salad. I made it today along with your Grilled Garlic Shrimp recipe. A perfect combination. Both are keepers that I’ll be making again and again. Thanks Lisa.
Love this paired with grilled shrimp…the best summer dinner! Enjoy, Gary!
I just made this salad. I added a few grape tomatoes and some black olives. This is seriously delicious! I will be making this all summer as the ingredients are usually on hand.
Love those Mediterranean additions, Catherine. Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing this. It posted some time ago, but I hadn’t had the chance to even look until now, yet knew I just had to at some point, and so glad I did! The ingredients combined will make this absolutely delicious. I’ve been in need of incorporating Quinoa into my diet and this is the answer!! I can’t wait to make this over the weekend!!
Now, about that cucumber… To chop it down uniformly, you may want to cut the length unless you have a good shape knife to slice without the drag. So cut off one end; then slice its length-ways multiple times, rotate it 90 degrees and slice length-ways again, then chop throughout the length uniformly! :))
Best regards.
Excited for you to make this quinoa salad, CeeKay.
This delicious quinoa salad was dinner tonight. Yum!! I also took on board your idea to add some baked chicken (also cooked to perfection thanks to your wonderful recipe) and avocado. It was the perfect combination! Thank you, Lisa, for another winner recipe. Bonus: there’s plenty left over to enjoy this week. 😊
Thrilled to hear you loved this quinoa salad with diced baked chicken! Enjoy, Rennie :)
Beautiful! Can’t wait to try your dressing. I make my own also. I’m surprised you didn’t add any type vinegar. Love your videos.
Excited for you to try this, Dawn! Please report back :)
I got an email this morning from Downshiftology and saw the recipe and thought… that looks AMAZING and I could make that RIGHT now. I didn’t have capers, but used pitted Kalamata olives instead. I also didn’t have fresh parsley, but used dried parsley. This was so good! Fresh, light, and filling. I will definitely be making this again and again!
Yay! I’m so glad you loved this quinoa salad so much with a few minor tweaks, Hanna!
Just made this and OH MY STARS!
LOVE it Lissa! The whole family did.
The flavors are fresh with sweet, briny and salty, the textures are crisp but soft in the feta and quinoa.
Sadly i did not have any capers on hand, so what I did was finely chop some pepperoncinis to try to come close to the peppery, brined/pickled taste and it worked! (gotta improv sometimes!) I can’t wait to use the capers next time. I also had some fresh dill and tender thyme in my garden so added those as well.
I think I will chop some fresh tomatoes when we have it for lunch tomorrow.
Thanks again!
I’m planning to make this for the next bbq potluck I go to… I think it will be well received and will be sturdy enough to hold up to making ahead.
Love the idea of swapping the capers with pepperoncinis for a briny touch! Excited for you to make this again for your next potluck, Robin!
Excellent! I made this tonight, my only addition was finely diced rainbow radishes. Served it with flaked baked salmon for a complete meal. Will definitely make this again.
Happy to hear you enjoyed this so much, Janet!
The fresher the ingredients, the better tasting this salad is! Thank you for continuing to inspire me to eat well!
I couldn’t agree with you more! Enjoy, Aida.
I’ve made this and I have also added chick peas. Delicious
Glad this worked out great for the perfect vegetarian salad, Kathleen!
This looks SO GOOD! A great recipe to make during meal prep day and keep in the fridge for lunches!
You nailed it! I hope you enjoy this salad, Amy.
This is a comment on the Nordic ware sheet pans. I have used them for years…. The same 3. They last forever and stay looking great, if you take care of them. I have many Nordic ware pieces as we live in Minneapolis and this is their home too. I go to their outlet store and have the privilege of buying blems, plus seeing in one place all their fantastic products. Thank you for promoting them. I do too!!
I love those sheet pans as well! I’ve had mine for years :)
This looks and sounds delish. I will definitely try this one later.
Excited for you to try this, Andie!