Avocado quinoa salad recipe – simple & vegan

This tasty avocado quinoa salad is different and it’s becoming our favorite! If you have some quinoa in your fridge you can make this healthy vegan recipe in about 10 minutes for dinner or lunch.

We don’t know what it is, but lately all we're craving is salads (well and smoothies). Which is a great thing, but seriously…who am we pretending to be? A saint? Beyoncé? That would be cool. What happened to the parmesan pizza we were obsessed with 2 weeks ago and was ordering every night? We even went to the pizza place this weekend, fully intending to order and just left like a weirdo. Disappointment to humanity.

via giphy

We asked for the menu and all. Then we went home and made myself a salad.

Well, if you’re brave enough to go for a salad instead of something warm today – we have a tasty avocado quinoa salad recipe that we're in love with and want to share.

Now, it’s true – we have two other avocado quinoa salad recipes on the blog – one with tomato and cucumber and one with herbs and olives. This one is different. It’s got basil in it, which is weird because it also has tamari sauce in it, and it’s got cucumbers and carrots and somehow it all works so well. There’s something about combining avocado and quinoa in one meal that makes us melt. There. There’s something we never, ever thought we'd say.

We tried to make this recipe pretty for the pictures, but we really got lazy and hungry while making it, so decided to not ribbon the cucumbers all the way as we did with this salad. Instead, we just chopped them as if we were playing in a horror movie. We did have the patience for the carrot though…

Not pretty, but spoiler alert: still tastes the same! It’s satisfying, healthy and it’s gluten-free.

How To Cook Quinoa

Preparing quinoa is similar to preparing rice. Make sure to wash it a couple of times before cooking. We usually cook it in a pot with quinoa to water ratio of 1:2, at medium-high heat. Cover with a lid, bring to a boil. Then reduce heat, cook for 4-5 minutes until you don’t see any more water above the quinoa. Turn the heat off and let it sit like that for 10 minutes, still covered with the lid. Then you’re ready and can make any salad you want. Since you’re already here, just make this one.

We hope you enjoyed your weekend and we hope you enjoy this salad as well, if you decide to make it. Let us know if you liked it and what changes you made to make it fit your preferences!

• Yield: 2
• Prep: 15 minutes
• Total: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 avocado, medium/large
• 1 cucumber, chopped or ribboned (or 2 small ones)
• 1 carrot, ribboned/grated
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• handful basil leaves, chopped
• 2 scallions, thinly chopped
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

• 1 tbsp tamari sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced

Method

1. For the dressing: In a small bowl whisk together tamari, sesame oil, vinegar and garlic.
2. Ribbon the carrot and cucumber using a peeler - you basically peel the vegetable until there's nothing left to peel. If you're feeling lazy, you can also grate the carrot and chop the cucumber as we did at the end for this recipe.
3. In a salad bowl combine cooked quinoa, the avocado (peeled, seeded and chopped), cucumbers, carrot, parsley and basil.
4. Mix in the dressing and top with the roasted sesame seeds.
5. Enjoy!