Vegan Quinoa Salad is delicious and super easy to make! Comes together in under 20 minutes and is perfect for get togethers, quick lunches, and more!
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We all know that pasta salads are amazing, but this vegan quinoa salad is absolutely a hit and a great gluten free replacement for pasta salad.
It’s perfect for a summer salad or meal to take to a get together!
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Why You’ll Love This Dish
- Simple – Most of the ingredients are things you likely have in your fridge and/or pantry already and it only takes 20 minutes to come together!
- Versatile – You can switch up the sauces, the vegetables used, or even the grain if you prefer. It can also be served warm or cold depending on the eater’s preference!
- Great for Meal Prep – This recipe is easy to prep and lasts the whole week making it perfect for lunches all week long!
🥘Recipe Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
- Quinoa – We are used dried quinoa that has been rinsed and then cooked and cooled for this recipe. It’s a great grain that has a lot of health benefits while being gluten free.
- Chickpeas – you can use canned or premade and cooked chickpeas for this dish. This is the protein we are using as it pairs nicely with everything else.
- Vegetables– we are using a variety of flavors and textures out of our veggies to make sure we have soft and crunchy bites, lots of color, and some sweetness and savoriness out of each bite
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Substitutions and Variations:
- Quinoa – Another grain or pasta could be used with the other ingredients in this recipe
- Chickpeas – something like tofu or white beans would be a good sub
- Peanuts – if you are allergic, you can sub with sunflower seeds
- Vegetables– we are using a variety of flavors and textures out of our veggies to make sure we have soft and crunchy bites, lots of color, and some sweetness and savoriness out of each bite
- Stretch this meal – Feel free to add tofu, mushrooms, or even more vegetables if you’d like!
Step by Step Instructions for vegan quinoa salad:
Step 1. Cook your quinoa according to the package instructions. We prefer to cook in vegetable stock so that it adds more flavor.
Step 2. Pour cooked quinoa into a large bowl and fluff up with a fork. Let cool to touch, then pour some of your sauce in and stir together.
Step 3. Add all your remaining ingredients into the large bowl with the quinoa.
Step 4. Stir together well, making sure your sauce is evenly distributed. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Place in the fridge and all the flavors to come together even more.
Recipe FAQs:
Yes. The soy sauce can be subbed with tamari, coconut aminos or no soy soy sauce depending on your needs. Peanuts can be subbed with pepitas, sunflower seeds, or another nut if you can have them. Lastly, you can just omit the sesame seed oil or add another oil like olive or avocado in its place with a hint of liquid smoke.
Yes. Once cooled, place in a sealed container and in the fridge for up to 5-6 days.
Yes! This recipe can be doubled, tripled, etc to be what you need.
We don’t recommend freezing this dish.
Other Vegan Salad Recipes to Consider:
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🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- 1 ½ cups vegetable broth (or water)
- 1 15oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup red cabbage, diced
- 1 cup mini cucumbers, sliced
- 1 cup carrots, shredded or julienned
- ½ cup red onion, diced
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- ⅓ cup green onions, chopped
- ⅓ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
Peanut Dressing (for lighter dressing option see notes)
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter (natural preferred)
- 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
- 3 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon agave
- 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Optional Additions
- 1 lime, juiced
- ½ cup vegan feta cheese
- cherry tomatoes, quartered
Instructions
- Cook rinsed quinoa in the vegetable broth according to directions.
- While quinoa is cooking, combine all the ingredients for dressing. Whisk together. Place in fridge to set aside.
- Once quinoa is done, allow it to cool. Pour in ¼ of the dressing and stir together. Add the chickpeas, all the vegetables, peanuts, and remaining dressing and stir to combine again.
- Can be served immediately, but best if let sit in the fridge for at least an hour to cool down and let the flavor come together.
Notes
- 3 Tablespoon Lemon Juice (more or less to taste)
- 1 Teaspoon Fresh Ginger – grated
- ½ Teaspoon Garlic – minced (about 2 cloves)
- 2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce or Tamari
- 2 Tablespoon Maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoon Toasted Sesame Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- Salt to Taste
- ¼ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper, optional (more or less to taste)
Im from Mexico y just found you on TikTok and im a fan loved this recipe its
amazingly DELICIOUS!! Thank you!! 😱
Welcome Monica!
Loved it!
Yay!
just wondering if this keeps in the fridge well? thanks for this beautiful recipe!!
Yes! At least 3 days – sometimes after that the cucumbers get a little mushy, but everything else holds up well!
Absolutely amazing! Light, fresh delicious! The dressing (I did the pb one) is more than I can express! A must try! I’ll be using it for tofu too! Summer repeat salad!! 😋
So glad you enjoyed it !
Very very good! I added additional fresh chopped scallions and peanuts on top of each serving and a “squoze of lime.” Keeper for sure!
love it!
Love love this salad, easy to make and delicious to eat, great source of protein, fiber and vitamins.
Happy you loved it!
Loved this recipe! So hearty, versatile and peanut-y delicious. Didn’t make any swaps to the dressing, was perfect.
So glad you enjoyed it!
This recipe was so easy to make & absolutely delicious! I didn’t have any cucumber so I replaced with zucchini & yellow squash. Still very refreshing & filling. Will definitely make more often!
Thanks for sharing your swaps, we love seeing that. We are so excited to hear that you liked the recipe. Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We appreciate it!