Rainbow Summer Quinoa Salad

I don't know about you, but summer is the time of year when I feel like I could eat a salad for every meal. For breakfast, a fruit salad. For lunch, a quinoa salad. For dinner, a roasted vegetable salad, a pasta salad, a bean salad. There are endless options! 

Eating an amalgamation of different colours not only comes with a pleasing aesthetic, but includes a multitude of health benefits from the combination of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants you ingest. Eating different variations of foods every day and at every meal ensure you are getting your daily required nutrients and then some.

Quinoa adds a complete protein to this veggie-packed salad so you could absolutely eat this as your main dish! The zucchini and the carrots have been sliced into strips using an ordinary vegetable peeler and then rolled up so they look pretty, but I also tossed them into the spinach sitting below everything on top. 

You can use any of your favourite salad dressings on this salad. I like to use my lemony greek yogurt dressing featured in my Seasonal Roasted Vegetable Salad recipe, however any type of citrus vinaigrette would do lovely and it would keep the recipe vegan of course!!

If you would like to save my recipes you can find me on Pinterest as The Blissful Blueberry. You can also find me on Instagram as @the.blissful.blueberry - look for the green icon or this picture!

*serves 2

Ingredients:

Salad

1 small zucchini

1 medium beet

1 small sweet potato

1 medium carrot

Small handful of almonds

1/2 field cucumber

4 asparagus stalks

2 large handfuls of spinach

1 cup cooked quinoa (~1/2 cup uncooked)

A few almonds

2 lemon slices

Dressing

I used my lemony greek yogurt dressing, but this would also be lovely with it, and keeps the recipe vegan. You could also just squeeze a bit of lemon on top and enjoy it that way.

Preheat your oven to 375°F and boil a pot of water. Boil the beet whole with the skin on until it is cooked through, about 25-30 minutes. Cut the sweet potato into rounds about a 1/2 inch thick and place in oven directly on the rack until cooked through, about 25-30 minutes. Once the beet is cooked, pull the skin off (it should come off rather easily) and slice into rounds. Once the sweet potatoes are cooked, take them out of the oven and slice in half.

Put a large handful of spinach into each bowl. Slice the zucchini and carrots into ribbons. I used an ordinary vegetable peeler to do this, you can also use a mandolin, or if you prefer them spiralized you can do that as well. Add the majority of the zucchini and carrot ribbons to the spinach and toss. Roll up the remaining ribbons and arrange them on top if you wish.

Slice the asparagus into thin strips and slice the cucumber into thin rounds. Now you can put 1/2 cup of quinoa on each salad, and arrange all of the toppings however you would like. I sprinkled some oregano, salt and pepper on top before I added a dressing. Enjoy with the dressing of your choice, or none at all!