THIS is your new salad. I'm telling you -- switch up your old lettuce and ranch salad for the flavorful, colorful, full of life, and healthy goodness of this Black Bean Quinoa Salad. It's packed with plenty of veggies and a simple dressing that takes just a few minutes to make!
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Why You Will Love This Quinoa Salad Recipe
- Perfect Cold Side Dish. It's ideal for the summer when you need something delicious yet cooling to enjoy with your favorite meals.
- Packed with Nutrients. Full of crisp veggies and packed with protein thanks to the quinoa, black beans, and cheese.
- Winning Flavor Combination. You can't go wrong with a pile of crunchy veggies simply seasoned with fresh lime, salt, and pepper. It's so good and goes with just about anything!
If you love this quinoa salad recipe you've got to try our Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad and this Caprese Pesto Quinoa next.
Ingredients
To make this quinoa salad with feta you need a variety of fresh veggies. This combination is killer delicious!
- Sweet bell pepper: I love using a variety of colored peppers for more color and a more complex sweet crunch in this southwest quinoa salad.
- Red onion: Has a crisp texture and deeper flavor that's perfect for salads. You can swap it with chives or green onions or use some onion salt instead of the fresh.
- Celery: The ultimate crunchy veggie.
- Cucumbers: Crunchy and crisp they bring a fresh flavor to the salad.
- Avocado: A healthy fat that adds a creamy texture that works perfectly with the veggies.
- Feta cheese: Gives a bit of a salty flavor to the salad. You can swap it with another crumbly, flavorful cheese such as cotija or blue cheese crumbles. You can even use fresh mozzarella as well.
- Black beans: For color, more texture, and to boost the heartiness of the salad.
- Lime: Freshly squeezed limes adds a burst of brightness and ties everything together.
- Quinoa: This seed when cooked just right it turns into fluffy little balls of amazingness. It's also naturally gluten-free! It's such a healthy alternative to a lot of starches works great added to salads or eaten on its own. It comes in white, red, black and tri-color. You can use any of these but the white cooks up softer while the red and black are a bit crunchier. The tri-colors works well if you prefer a mix of the two textures.
- Broth: For cooking the quinoa. It adds more flavor than cooking it in just water.
Variations
- Swap the Veggies. I love using the veggies shown above for their color, crunch, and flavor they bring but if they don't work for you can easily use others. Try to use a similar colored veggie to keep the bright colorfulness of the salad. Carrots, corn, chopped broccoli, red cabbage, and cauliflower are a few ideas.
- Different Bean. This quinoa black bean salad also works with cooked or canned chickpeas, pinto beans, or red beans.
- Add Chicken. If you prefer to add some animal protein it's great with some shredded rotisserie chicken added.
- Different Grain. Don't like quinoa? No worries. This rainbow salad works great with bulgur, wheat berries, or farro too.
- Mexican Quinoa Salad. Throw in some fresh cilantro and a bit of chopped jalapeno for some heat.
How to Make Quinoa Salad
Step 1: Cook the Quinoa
Quinoa cooks quickly but I love making quinoa in the Instant Pot to save even more time. Here's how to do it.
- Rinse the quinoa with water. You may see bubble similar to soap appear in the water. This is from a compound in the quinoa called saponins. Rinse until you no longer see the bubbles.
- Add oil to your Instant Pot.
- Pour in your broth and add the quinoa.
- Cook for 1 min and then allow it a 4-10 min natural release. Finish with quick release and then fluff it with a fork and let it cool down.
PRO TIP: You can also cook the quinoa on the stove following the directions on the package.
Step 2: Prep the Veggies
- Dice the cucumber, onion, and bell pepper into similar sized small pieces.
- Cube the avocado.
- Rinse and drain the black beans.
PRO TIP: To cut down on time and save you hands from a lot of chopping I highly recommend investing in an onion chopper. It's a huge time saver and takes you about a minute to chop them up.
Step 3: Assemble the Summer Quinoa Salad
- Combine the quinoa and veggies in a large bowl. Squeeze with lime juice.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Top with the avocado and feta cheese.
- Serve and enjoy!
PRO TIP: Add more or less of ANY veggie! If you have a favorite then add more of that baby in!! Personally, I like to add loads of cucumber. This quinoa and black bean salad is about you ;) so make it yours and how you like!
Expert Tips
- Let It Sit After Mixing. This avocado quinoa salad is better if you let the ingredients marry together. This means stirring everything together and letting it sit. The variety of flavors will mix and infuse with each other to create a truly unique deep flavor.
- Storing. Pack up leftovers in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to three days. It's not recommended to freeze it.
- Keep Avocado From Browning. Wait to add the avocado until just before serving. If that's not possible then I recommend squeezing some extra lime juice directly over the avocado. The citric acid will slow down the process of it turning brown.
Serving Suggestions
This quinoa salad with avocado works perfectly for all types of meals. It's a great addition to a potluck, summer cookout, picnic, or even a simple weeknight dinner.
I love the simple dressing of lime juice with some salt and pepper tie everything together. Each vegetable is full of juices so the salad is not dry at all. But you can make it a little extra fancy with our Creamy Jalapeno Dressing.
Serve it up with all your grilling favorites such as our Grilled Asian Chicken, Smoked Pulled Pork, or Grilled Shrimp Kabobs.
Enjoy it with Mexican favorites such as these Fish Tacos, Shrimp Tacos, or Steak Tacos.
Recipe FAQs
YES! This salad is full of vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants. Quinoa is low-carb, high in protein, high in iron, potassium and calcium. It's also naturally gluten-free making it more suitable for those with gluten-intolerance issues.
YES! This is a great salad for eating for days. You can do this two ways
cut all veggies (excluding the avocado). Store the veggies and quinoa separately. Toss them together 30-60 minutes before serving and then add the avocado and cheese. The other option is to make smother the avocado with lime juice before adding it to the salad.
More Colorful Salad Recipes
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Quinoa Black Bean Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried quinoa
- 1 ¼s cups broth I prefer vegetable broth
- 1 tomato
- ⅓ cup red bell pepper
- ⅓ cup yellow bell pepper
- ⅓ cup green bell pepper
- ⅓ small red onion
- ¾ cup feta cheese
- 1 cucumber
- 1 avocado
- 2 stals celery
- 15 ounce can black beans drained and rinsed, or 1 ½ cups cooked
- salt and pepper to taste
- juice of one-two limes
Instructions
- Cook quinoa in broth. Set aside to cool. Use the directions on the package or check out our Instant Pot Quinoa recipe.
- Drain can of black beans, then rinse. Finely chop all veggies.
- Toss together all chopped ingredients.
- Mix with fresh lime juice and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Top with avocado and feta cheese. Enjoy!
Notes
- Let It Sit After Mixing. This avocado quinoa salad is better if you let the ingredients marry together. This means stirring everything together and letting it sit. The variety of flavors will mix and infuse with each other to create a truly unique deep flavor.
- Storing. Pack up leftovers in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to three days. It's not recommended to freeze it.
- Keep Avocado From Browning. Wait to add the avocado until just before serving. If that's not possible then I recommend squeezing some extra lime juice directly over the avocado. The citric acid will slow down the process of it turning brown.
- Instant Pot Quinoa. To cook the quinoa in a pressure cooker add 1 cup quinoa, 1 ¼ cups broth, cook for 1 minute, and then 4-10 min natural release.
Nutrition
Michelle says
Is it remotely possible to give measurements or directions on chopping and sizes. Could you indicate how many or how much? So we just gather all these ingredients and throw them all together and hope it works.
No thank you!
Kadee says
All amounts and instructions on chopping are located in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. There is also a jump to recipe button at the top of the post.
The recipe card indicated a measurement of 1/3 cup of each of the bell peppers. This will equal roughly 1 bell pepper of each of the colors. All the other ingredients should be measured as instructed in the card.
All veggies should be finely chopped. Finely chopped generally means about 1/4 of an inch. I like to use an onion chopper so everything is uniform, but you can just chop with a knife if you prefer.
Erin V says
the most beauuuuutiful salad, can't wait to make!!!!!!!!!!