Whether or not you’re a celebration individual, a meal prepper, or a picnic lover, we’ve received a salad that may do it ALL! This recent, crunchy Southwest-inspired quinoa salad options corn, black beans, cilantro, tons of veggies, and a zippy lime French dressing. BIG TIME deliciousness, mates!
It retains effectively, making it excellent for BBQs, picnics, or fast lunches all through the week. Easy elements and simply half-hour required! Allow us to present you the way it’s carried out!
Methods to Make Black Bean Quinoa Salad
This SIMPLE black bean and quinoa salad begins with: quinoa! We frequently have this nutrient-packed pseudo-grain (it’s truly a seed) cooked and able to go in our fridge, whether or not we’re utilizing it to make breakfast cookies, fritters, stir-fries, or energy bowls.
For this salad, you should utilize quinoa that you simply’ve made forward, or make a recent batch when able to make the salad. Quinoa cooks in about Quarter-hour on the stovetop and can also be very straightforward to make within the Immediate Pot (a terrific choice for beating summertime warmth!).
Subsequent, we chop up recent, crunchy veggies (cherry tomatoes + bell pepper + purple onion) and add corn for sweetness and cilantro for an herby contact. In the event you don’t like cilantro, you possibly can go away it out or strive recent dill and/or parsley.
Then it’s on to the opposite essential element of this salad: black beans! They enhance the fiber and protein content material, making this salad fairly the nutrient powerhouse.
The ultimate element is the lime French dressing, made with lime juice, olive oil, maple syrup, and sea salt. To maintain issues tremendous easy and guarantee a 1-bowl, 30-minute state of affairs (as soon as your quinoa is made), we add the dressing elements immediately into the salad and provides it a stir.
After that, it’s able to get pleasure from immediately by itself…or topped with avocado and pepitas to make it additional filling.
We hope you LOVE this quinoa black bean salad! It’s:
Recent
Crunchy
Herby
Veggie-packed
Meal prep-friendly
& SO scrumptious!
This protein and fiber-packed facet is a good make-ahead dish for summer season picnics and BBQs, lunches all through the week, or when it’s too scorching to cook dinner!
Extra Grain & Bean Salads
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Servings 8 (~1 cup servings)
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- 2 ½ cups cooked and cooled quinoa (3/4 cup or 138 g dry quinoa yields ~2 ½ cups or 460 g cooked)
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered (1 pint yields ~2 cups or 315 g)
- 1 cup orange or purple bell pepper, finely diced (1 medium bell pepper yields ~ 1 cup or 115 g)
- 1/3 cup finely diced purple onion (1/2 small onion yields ~1/3 cup or 50 g)
- 1 (15-oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed (or ~1 ½ cups selfmade)
- 3 ears recent corn*, kernels eliminated (3 ears yield ~1 ½ cups or 225 g corn kernels // or sub 1 ½ cups frozen corn, thawed)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 4-5 Tbsp lime juice (2-3 limes yield ~4-5 Tbsp or 60-75 ml juice, relying on how juicy they’re)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp maple syrup (or honey if not vegan)
- 1 ¼ tsp sea salt (regulate to style)
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In the event you don’t have already got cooked quinoa, put together it presently. In a small saucepan, mix 3/4 cup (138 g) dry quinoa and 1 ½ cups (360 ml) water (it will make ~2 ½ cups cooked quinoa — regulate quantities if altering default variety of servings). Deliver to a boil over medium-high warmth. As soon as boiling, scale back warmth to a simmer, cowl, and proceed cooking for ~12-Quarter-hour till the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy and has expanded. Take away from the warmth, stir, and put aside (lined). The quinoa will get even fluffier because it sits!
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In a big mixing bowl, mix the cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, purple onion, drained and rinsed black beans, corn, and cilantro. Toss to mix.
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Add the cooked and cooled quinoa (it’s okay if it’s not fully cooled) together with the lime juice, olive oil, maple syrup, and salt and blend effectively. Style and regulate as wanted, including extra salt for total taste, lime juice for brightness, olive oil for richness, maple syrup for sweetness, or cilantro for herbiness.
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Serve at room temperature or chilled. Optionally, garnish particular person servings with diced avocado and pepitas. Leftover salad (with out avocado/pepitas) retains effectively in a sealed container within the fridge for as much as 2-3 days. Not freezer pleasant.
*We examined this recipe with recent, frozen, and canned corn. Recent had the very best taste and frozen was additionally good. Canned corn (drained and rinsed) was okay and works in a pinch, nevertheless it’s not our most popular alternative.
*Prep time/whole time assumes the quinoa is already ready. Making the quinoa will add an extra ~Quarter-hour.
*Diet data is a tough estimate calculated with out non-obligatory elements.
Serving: 1 (~1 cup serving) Energy: 202 Carbohydrates: 33.8 g Protein: 7.2 g Fats: 5.4 g Saturated Fats: 0.7 g Polyunsaturated Fats: 1.4 g Monounsaturated Fats: 3 g Trans Fats: 0 g Ldl cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 374 mg Potassium: 466 mg Fiber: 7.2 g Sugar: 5.5 g Vitamin A: 162 IU Vitamin C: 30 mg Calcium: 45 mg Iron: 2 mg