Crunchy is definitely one of my favorite food adjectives.
I seriously LOVE a good crunch. It’s just so satisfying… you know, when you bite into a big fresh salad and you get that first crunch and burst of fresh ingredients?!
Ahhhh HEAVEN.
This crunchy veggie quinoa salad has some SERIOUS crunch.
We start with one of my favorite “grains”… quinoa! It’s just so versatile and delicious. Makes fabulous salads, cookies, burgers, etc. The opportunities are ENDLESS.
So we mix this quinoa with all the crunchy veggies like red cabbage (fave), red bell pepper (yum), red onion (standard), carrots (good for ya eyes), radishes (extra crispy crunchy), and edamame (not crunchy but oh so tasty) into the most yummy crunchy veggie quinoa salad. Sounds awesome right?! Next, we throw in some lime juice for tang babyyyy tang then per usual add a healthy pinch of sea salt and pepper.
Off topic but not really… I was unsure whether or not to call edamame a vegetable. It seems like a great topic for debate. Is it a legume like chickpeas or a vegetable like green beans?! The internet has lots of opinions about it. The most legit answer seems like legume… thoughts?
Back to the recipe… let’s discuss the dressing that we drizzle all over this amazingly crunchy salad…
Y’all it’s made with… SUNBUTTER. Another one of my favorite things! Y’all know how much I love peanut butter? Well, I love SunButter EVEN MORE. I know… it’s crazy but it happened and I don’t regret it. If you haven’t tried this stuff, you need to ASAP.
p.s. I buy the no sugar added kind because healthy? (more like #trynabehealthy)
SO yeah, magically delicious SunButter (aka sunflower seed butter) mixed together with agave, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, olive oil, and sesame oil into a dreamy creamy practically drinkable dressing. I want to dunk EVERYTHING in this dressing. It’s basically like my favorite peanut butter dressing but with SunButter so yeah like 10 million times more amazing.
You can totally top this quinoa salad off with cashew halves or sliced almonds if you want more crunch. OR if you’d like some protein, may I suggest topping this salad off with my favorite roasted lime chicken?!
TO DIE FOR.
Ramblin’ done. Recipe time yo.
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups shredded red cabbage
- 1 red bell pepper; cored, seeded, and diced
- 1 cup diced red onion (about half a small-medium red onion)
- 1 cup matchstick carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 cup matchstick radishes, roughly chopped
- 2 cups frozen edamame, thawed
- 1 1/2 cups minced cilantro
- juice of 2 limes
- healthy pinch of sea salt and black pepper
- optional garnish: large handful of cashew halves or/and roasted lime chicken to top salad
- 1/3 cup sunbutter (sunflower seed butter)
- 1 tablespoon agave
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 3 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce (gluten free if needed)
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1-2 tablespoons water to thin (if necessary)
Instructions
- Make quinoa: Place quinoa in a fine mesh strainer then rinse with cold water. Add rinsed quinoa and 2 cups of water to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover with lid, then let simmer about 15-20 minutes or until tender and white spiral-like threads appear around each grain. Remove from heat and fluff cooked quinoa with a fork. Transfer quinoa to in a large mixing bowl to cool while you prep other ingredients. p.s. this should yield about 3 cups of cooked quinoa.
- Make the dressing: Add sunbutter and agave to a large (microwave-safe) measuring cup or jar. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until melted. Add in ginger through sesame oil then whisk until fully combined and super smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to thin it out (start with 1 tablespoon then try another if still too thick).
- Assemble: Add red cabbage, bell pepper, red onion, carrots, radishes, edamame, cilantro, and lime juice to the large mixing bowl with the quinoa. Toss to combine. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve: Portion quinoa salad into bowls then drizzle the ginger sunbutter dressing over top. Garnish with cashew halves and/or roasted lime chicken (totally optional). EAT.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Ambitious Kitchen.
Note: I like to wait to add the dressing until serving because I found that the pre-dressed salad didn’t keep as long or as fresh in the fridge for leftovers. BUT if you are serving it all right away, feel free to mix the salad up with some dressing rather than drizzling it over top of each individual bowl.
Another note (lol): This is FABULOUS for lunch leftovers.
Guess what?!
This is my last day of work for the week because we have TWO WEDDINGS between Thursday and Saturday. This is our last crazy busy weekend of summer and it’s extra nutz. We have a wedding on Mackinac Island on Thursday then a wedding rehearsal + wedding in Rochester on Friday and Saturday. So basically we’ll be driving A LOT in the next few days (we live in Southeast Michigan) but it’s totally worth it to see our wonderful friends get married. We are even missing another wedding on Saturday due to overlap which I’m SUPER bummed about (love you Hannah and Austin!!!). Summers are literally crazy but crazy fun!
Though, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’m STOKED to literally do nothing all Labor Day Weekend (our first free weekend in seriously like two months), except watch some football and cook delicious food. Oh and maybe drink a beer or two (or five…).
Hope y’all are having a GREAT Wednesday. See you back here either tomorrow or Friday for some spaghetti squash taco bowls!
p.s.s. these sweet potato quinoa mini cakes are FAB too.