Southwest Quinoa Salad (Vegan| Meal Prep)- Plant-Based on a Budget

Name: Southwest Quinoa Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 2 cups of cooked quinoa; 15 ounces of black beans (drained); 15 ounces of garbanzo beans (drained); ½ cup of finely diced red onion; ½ cup of finely diced red bell pepper; 1 cup of halved cherry or grape tomatoes; ¼ cup of minced cilantro; Salt (to taste (about 1 to 2 teaspoons)); Juice of a lime ( (optional))

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This Southwest Quinoa Salad is so wholesome and packed with familiar Southwestern flavors, including black beans, tomato, bell pepper, and an oil-free cilantro-lime dressing. Once your quinoa is cooked, it’ll just take 10 minutes to put all together!

Completed Southwest Quinoa Salad on a plate.

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Why you’ll love this family favorite recipe!
The Ingredients
How to Make Southwest Quinoa Salad?
FAQs
Top Recipe Tips and Notes
How to Serve?
How to Store?
More Vegan Quinoa Recipes to Consider
Southwest Quinoa Salad Recipe

Why you’ll love this family favorite recipe!

Quinoa salads are healthy, flavorful, and super easy to customize. Since quinoa is packed with fiber and contains all the essential amino acids, it makes for a complete protein, excellent for adding to meat-free meals. So, having shared a Vegan Lemon-Garlic Mediterranean quinoa salad, fall quinoa salad, and avocado quinoa salad with grapefruit, now it’s the turn of this Southwest-inspired quinoa salad.

Since the zesty lime-cilantro dressing is oil free, this Southwest quinoa salad also cuts down on calories and fat found in many other recipes. Luckily, with the combination of fresh flavors, nutrients, and colors, this is a vegan quinoa salad that we happily return to time and time again!

Looking for more ways to enjoy quinoa? You might enjoy this sweet potato quinoa bowl, quick and easy artichoke salad, quinoa tater tots, or even cinnamon-orange quinoa!

The Ingredients

Ingredients for Southwest Quinoa Salad measured out on a white surface.

Optional add-ins & Recipe Variations

There are several ways to boost the flavor and customize this Southwest-inspired quinoa salad, including:

Garlic: Sauté minced garlic until fragrant, then cook with the quinoa.
Avocado: Add diced avocado just before serving. Check out this guide to avocado to learn more tips!
Spice: Add a pinch of red pepper flakes or some finely chopped chili.
Pickled ingredients: Pickled red onion or pickled jalapenos, finely chopped.
Tofu: Marinated or lightly fried tofu (like this crispy baked tofu) with taco seasoning (or something similar with a bit of heat) could work very well. Here’s a guide to tofu if you want to learn more about this protein-packed food!
Other vegetables: Corn (frozen, canned, or charred), spinach or kale, air fryer chickpeas, black olives, cucumber (English or Persian), roasted sweet potato, etc.
Nuts/Seeds: Add extra crunch and nutrients with pepitas, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, cashews, etc.
Salsa: A dollop or two of salsa (like this homemade roasted red salsa or creamy tomatillo avocado salsa verde) over the Southwest quinoa salad when serving.

How to Make Southwest Quinoa Salad?

First, you’ll need to cook the quinoa. Follow our instructions here in this complete guide to quinoa to learn how to cook it on the stove or in an Instant Pot. Make sure to rinse it first and allow it to thoroughly cool before moving on to the below step.

Process shot showing mixing ingredients together in a bowl.

Step 1: Drain and rinse the beans, dice the red onion and bell pepper, halve the tomatoes, and finely mince the cilantro. Then, transfer all the ingredients to a large serving bowl and toss to combine. You can enjoy the Southwestern quinoa immediately, though it’s even better to leave it for 20-30 minutes in the fridge to allow the flavors to meld.

FAQs

Can I substitute the quinoa?

You could use several grains instead of quinoa, such as wild rice, couscous, farro, etc. However, the cooking methods and times will vary.

Can I use freshly cooked quinoa?

The quinoa needs to be chilled before mixing with the fresh veggies; otherwise, it can cause them to wilt. Leave at least an hour or two for it to cool down. To speed up the process, spread it across a large tray in a thin layer and transfer it to the fridge/freezer.

Can I substitute the cilantro?

Parsley could work as a substitute for those that are not a fan of cliantro.

Top Recipe Tips and Notes

To enhance the quinoa flavor: Lightly toast it in the pan/skillet until fragrant before cooking it.
Using leftover cooked quinoa: It should be fully cooled before making this Southwest quinoa salad.
Adjust the vegetables added: Based on what you have in your kitchen/pantry. This veggie quinoa is highly versatile.
Leave the black bean quinoa salad to marinate: This will give the flavors a chance to meld for a better overall result.

How to Serve?

There are several ways to enjoy this Southwest quinoa salad, whether as an appetizer, side, or main.

Create a Southwest quinoa bowl: With the addition of avocado slices, an optional dollop of salsa, and some additional protein (i.e., crispy salt and pepper tofu or bbq tempeh).
Enjoy with vegan tacos: Either within or alongside them. Like these roasted veggie tacos, Chipotle lime street-style tacos, or cauliflower tacos.
For scooping: Scoop with air fryer tortilla chips.
Wraps and burritos: Enjoy in or alongside this tofu lettuce wraps with peanut sauce, vegan black bean lettuce wraps, and this bean and rice burrito.

How to Store?

You can cook the quinoa up to 2 days in advance and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Likewise, the vegetables can be chopped up to a day in advance.

Store any leftover Southwest quinoa salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.

You can also freeze the quinoa bean mixture (minus the fresh vegetables). Store in portions either in Ziplock/Stasher bags or airtight containers for 3-4 months. Allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight before adding the fresh veggies and seasoning, then mix and enjoy.

Completed Southwest Quinoa Salad in a storage container.

More Vegan Quinoa Recipes to Consider

Vegan Dinners

Healthy Quinoa Veggie Bowl

Vegan Dinners

Easy Black Bean Quinoa Casserole

Vegan Desserts

Vegan Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

Vegan Dinners

Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash [With Quinoa]

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