Ummm hi. I’m recovering from a food coma — a deep and scary one. I guess that’s what happens when you attend food conferences in a city where there is magical Mexican food.
I can’t even think of anything except salad right now! I need it. Because apparently I think that it’s okay to eat ice cream sandwiches the size of my face, buttery muffins for breakfast, and ohhh I don’t know about a million peanut butter m&ms (give or take a few).
I’ll be paying for my decisions for the next week; however, with salads that include strawberries, goat cheese, quinoa, and crunchy sunflower seeds; I’m not sure I mind too much. Especially when it’s tossed in my absolute favorite lemon dressing.
I would have to say that this salad is absolutely perfect for summer. It’s slightly sweet, but oh so fresh! Often times I add chia or poppyseeds to the lemon dressing for a little fun crunch and extra nutrition. The goat cheese adds in a nice tang and along with the dressing, I found it to be irresistible! The sunflower seeds are different and lovely, but you can use pecans if you’d like.
Other optional add-ins that I’d suggest: chickpeas or pulled chicken breast. You can serve this over spinach and pack it for your weekly lunches.
Anyway, enjoy the goodness. I’ll be back soon with a recap of the food conference.
More quinoa salad recipes to try:
Fiesta Mango Black Bean Quinoa Salad
Kale, Edamame & Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Famous Crunchy Cashew Thai Quinoa Salad {vegan & gluten-free}
One Pot Moroccan Chickpea Quinoa Salad
Balsamic Chicken Berry Quinoa Salad
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Fresh Strawberry Basil Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese, Sunflower Seeds & Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup organic quinoa, rinsed
- 1 1/4 cups quartered strawberries
- 3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (about 5-6 leaves)
- 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds (I buy mine from Trader Joe's)
- 4 ounces crumbled goat cheese
- For lemon dressing:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
- 1 large basil leaf, chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- fresh ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To cook quinoa: Rinse quinoa with cold water in mesh strainer. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil. Add in quinoa and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from heat and fluff quinoa with fork; place in large bowl and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. You should have a little over 2 cups of quinoa.
- To make dressing: place olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, sugar/honey, basil, and salt in blender or food processor. Blend/process for 10-15 seconds; fold into quinoa.
- Gently fold in strawberries and basil and any other add-ins you'd like such as chickpeas or chicken. Add salt or extra basil to taste. Place salad in refrigerator for few hours to let flavors marinate together. Once ready to serve, garnish salad with goat cheese, sunflower seeds and extra basil. I serve mine over a bed of spinach. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This recipe is light and delicious! I added chicken and served it over local greens. It was a huge hit at our potluck dinner!
Love strawberry quinoa salads!
Beautiful salad! I served it on a bed of spinach as a side with a lemon, dill & caper grilled Salmon Fillet. My guests loved it!
This doesn’t look like much of a sacrifice to me! It looks beyond delicious the fact that it is good for you is just a bonus. 🙂
This is one gorgeous quinoa salad! I’m all over this.
This salad looks great! I’ve been really digging quinoa recipes lately and I’ve hit the jackpot with this one. It’s so pretty! I listed you as one of “My Favorite Blogs” on my new blog. Thanks for being one of my inspirations. Check it out at http://sunnysideupsmile.com!
Strawberries with goat cheese are a magical combination! Love how healthy this salad is.
I’m from India and for us salads simply mean chopping up few raw edible veggies and dressing it with some lemon juice, salt-pepper. But after having coming to the US I absolutely love the wide array of salad choices we have here and its my fav meal to order when we eat out. I have tried my hand at making salads at home too, but my dressing recipes always flop out. This recipe looks so simple and darn good. I would love to try it soon.
Glad to have known about you through the Fortify community. I live in MN as well.
Isn’t it funny how your body starts craving stuff like this?? It looks SO good!
I guess if you’ve got to stop eating all that delicious food blog conference food, this is a pretty good way to come down off of it. Love these flavors!
Oh girl I need me some salad! Had so much fun eating my weight in food with you though! This salad looks fab!
That is one seriously gorgeous salad. I love the flavor combos here.
Oh this sounds amazing! I pinned it and will be trying it asap!
OMG this looks too good. I love the combo of roasted sunflower seeds, creamy goat cheese and strawberries. I have a big bag of those same TJ’s seeds in the cupboard so this is definitely on my list to make!
yum yum yum! i think some walnuts would be a tasty addition, too 🙂
A new way to enjoy quinoa? Sign me up! I don’t know about you but I can never have enough. Plus the bright berries and fresh basil make this one particularly appealing.