Rainbow Quinoa Salad with Honey Citrus Vinaigrette

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I have a beautiful rainbow dish to share to celebrate this colorful day.

My rainbow quinoa salad with honey citrus dressing! Sorry, you won’t see any sugar-loaded Shamrock shakes on this site because there are just too many beautiful and naturally colorful foods we can eat with out adding fake dyes to them. I mean look at these amazing colors…I am just in awe. Isn’t nature pretty amazing?

I have become newly obsessed with quinoa and last week and made a huge batch to keep in the fridge for on the go salads like this. With veggies prepped and dressing made, this gorgeous and eye-popping salad was my go to lunch on busy days and it was pure bliss. The quinoa was hearty enough to keep me full and was amazing the the ultra sweet strawberries and spicy arugula.

I would also like to dedicate this post to my fabulous neighbors. I’ve said it before and I will always say that I think Joe and I have the best neighbors in the world! Living in a small town, it’s nice to have people you can trust and that are just so friendly and generous as our neighbors are. Half of this salad was given to us from our neighbors. Barbara next door ran to our door with a gorgeous basket of HUGE and immensely sweet strawberries that she just bought from the farmers market and said that “they reminded her of us”. These were probably the best strawberries I have had in a while; locally grown, sweet and begging to be devoured!

On the other side of the salad was the most peppery arugula we have ever had! Our other neighbors M and E have a small garden plot they they tend to every year. M will often leave bags of peppers, oranges and arugula and whatever else is growing wild at our doorstep time to time. Last week it looks like arugula was sprouting like crazy! Their arugula is so hearty and spicy, you need something sweet to counteract the peppery-ness. But my oh my..it is wonderful!

The fun thing about this salad is that you can either have it in a beautiful rainbow pattern or you can chop it all up and enjoy all the colors in one delicious bite!

If you are planning on making this salad for week lunches, I suggest making the vinaigrette in a little mason jar and keeping it separate from everything else. I think the dressing would sog the leaves quickly so add it as soon as you’re ready to enjoy your salad.

And honestly, this salad is so versatile, you can include any of your favorite fruits and vegetables. Later in the week I added  blackberries and avocado!

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Rainbow Quinoa Salad with Honey Citrus Vinaigrette

Author: Samantha Ferraro

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup quinoa cooked
• 1 cup strawberries sliced
• 1 cup arugula
• 1 carrot any color, peeled into strips with a vegetable peeler
• 1 yellow beet roasted, peeled and sliced

Other salad additions

• Avocado cubed
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Spinach

Honey Citrus Vinaigrette

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 Tb honey
• 1/2 lemon zested and juiced
• 1/2 orange zested and juiced
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

• 1) Add all your salad ingredients to your bowl in a rainbow pattern or you can chop it all up.
• 2) Add all the vinaigrette ingredients into a mason jar, close the lid tightly and shake vigorously. The dressing should thicken. Taste for seasoning.
• 3) Dress the salad right before eating.