Pumpkin Quinoa Salad

Why We Love This Recipe

• Loaded with fall flavors, like pumpkin, cranberries, orange, and walnuts. This recipe makes for the perfect fall holiday entertaining dish or an easy weeknight dinner. You can even prep the toppings and let everyone choose their own, making it super customizable for guests.
• Quick and easy: Simply roast the pumpkin, whisk up the dressing, cook the quinoa, and assemble the salad. This dish comes together in under an hour and makes for a super delicious and filling meal.
• Homemade dressing: Our homemade orange balsamic dressing tastes amazing and is super easy to whip together. It's versatile and can be used as a marinade for protein, or on other fall salads.
• Meal prep friendly: This pumpkin quinoa salad is one of those dishes that stores really well in the fridge for meal prep. Since there's no regular lettuce, it doesn't get soggy, and it actually tastes even better after the dressing sits for a few days.

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make this pumpkin quinoa salad:

Ingredient Notes

• Pumpkin: To make this recipe, you'll need to find a pie pumpkin. They're readily available in most stores in the US during fall, but they can sometimes be difficult to find. If you can't find any fresh pumpkin, you can substitute with kabocha squash (it has a similar flavor and texture), or even butternut or acorn squash. Sweet potato could also work in a pinch, although they have a very different flavor.
  • To prepare it for this recipe, peel off the tough, outer skin with a vegetable peeler, then slice and half and use a spoon to remove the seeds. From there, you can slice it into long ½-inch thick strips, then dice into cubes.
• Quinoa: We're using basic white quinoa in this recipe, which is typically easiest to find in most grocery stores. However, you can also sub with tricolor or red quinoa, which taste very similar. We make sure to cook the quinoa according to package instructions.
• Baby kale: For this recipe we would recommend using either baby spinach or kale. Both are the perfect size and texture that provide a great base for the other toppings. Arugula would be another great option.
• Cranberries: We prefer using unsweetened dried cranberries in most of our recipes, but you can also use sweetened if you prefer the flavor.
• Orange juice: Feel free to use freshly squeezed or store bought in the vinaigrette.
• Shallots: You can also sub with yellow or red onion.
• Walnuts: Feel free to substitute with pecans or another nut of choice. To keep this pumpkin quinoa salad nut free, try used pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

Instructions

(1) Peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Dice pumpkin into ½-inch cubes. Add to a bowl and toss with the shallots, olive oil, salt, thyme, cinnamon, garlic powder, and pepper until well coated.

Transfer to a baking sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes at 375˚F, stirring once or twice, until fork tender.

(2) Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

(3) Prepare the quinoa according to package directions.

(4) In a large bowl, combine kale, roasted pumpkin, quinoa, walnuts, and cranberries. Pour the dressing over and toss well to coat. 

Tips and FAQs

• Storage: This salad stores well in the refrigerator for up to a week. Don't worry about keeping the dressing separate – it actually tastes even better when you let the salad sit overnight.
• Fork test: The pumpkin is finished cooking when you can easily insert a fork into the cubes. If there's any resistance, leave them in for a bit longer!
• Customize to your liking: This recipe is super easy to swap out other ingredients for based on preference or even the groceries you have on hand. Feel free to use a different grain (farro or brown rice would work well), another type of nut (pecans or almonds would be delicious), or any other topping you wish!
• Add cheese: Feel free to top this pumpkin quinoa salad with feta cheese, goat cheese or shaved parmesan.

Other Fall Salad Recipes to Enjoy

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