Featured comment
Ok, this salad is awesome! The combination of quinoa, pistachios, beets (I steamed them fresh), and ALL HAIL the pomegranate! My family, all 7 of them, are going to bed tonight still raving about the “smoothness of the beets combined with the POP of the pomegranates!”
Thanks for another great salad!
BTW – we made a homemade dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh pressed garlic, and fresh lemon. Divine
Susie
I’m so thrilled that today’s post is sponsored by my favorite fruit of all time — those golden, juicy, and delicious Opal apples. Major virtual high five to Opal apples for being amazing to eat and extra-amazing to eat in salads like this one.
You guys, I can’t even.
POMEGRANATES :: RED QUINOA :: PISTACHIOS :: GOAT CHEESE :: PICKLED BEETS IF YOU CAN HANDLE IT :: OPAL APPLES :: BABY SPINACH BUT NOT TOO MUCH BABY SPINACH :: LIGHT CHAMPAGNE VINAIGRETTE.
*head massage emoji*
I need to address something with you, though. As you’re going to see in just a second when you look at this picture, I, uhh, well, I just made my first Mason jar salad.
And it is 2014 almost 2015. And Mason jar salads have been floating around the internet since, um, like, forever ago. And yeah, that just happened for the first time in my kitchen right now today. Maybe I’m a tiny little bit slow on trends. Mayyybe.
Mason jar or no Mason jar, Bjork and I are headed up north for the weekend, meaning that we’re going to eat at two of my favorite Minnesota restaurants (!! I get superexcited about these things) and also meaning that I am chowing down on this Winter Rainbow Quinoa Salad like a champ to get a little extra healthy glow in before our weekend away.
As I was prepping this for the week, I just got hit by the ridiculously, annoyingly cute Mason jar salad inspiration. Two reasons I decided to go for it:
1. FACT: I am a cooler person when I use a Mason jar for anything. It’s just in the laws of nature according to Pinterest and Fancy Girl Life. These are literally the shortest days of the year, I’m feeling like a hibernating Minnesota winter homebody, and so to avoid the deep winter slump I needed to experience some perks of the high life. Enter Mason jar salads.
2. This salad has Opal apples in it, and Opal apples do not brown NO FOR REAL I JUST SAID THAT. Opals are non-GMO, golden, juicy, firm, crispy, delicious apples that do not brown when you cut them. Layer those apples right in the jar and you can stare at it all week long, still looking just and pretty and fresh as the day you assembled it. I pinkie promise you that these pictures were taken four days after I made the salad. 1-2-3-4 days! and still perky and fresh and tasting like nature’s perfect candy.
Ugh, I mean, this is just way too good to be true. (But it’s true.)
Quinoa + salads = not usually my thing, but I made this one my thing by adding goat cheese and pistachios and a new grown-up thing I’m having a phase with — BEETS. But I feel like a traitor for finally coming around, so I don’t really want to talk about that anymore.
I do want to talk about the fact that this is a quinoa salad that really reminds me of a combination of a chopped salad and a spa salad. Just to be clear, I don’t really know what a spa salad is, but in my mind that dreams of spas, it’s a beets/goat cheese/other veggies plate-o-glory. On second thought, that might just be because they serve a salad like that at one of my favorite restaurants and it’s called the Spa Salad. Does that count?
So whatever kind of thing this is, it’s delicious.
It’s loaded with bright green spinach, crispy bites of apple, juicy bursts of pomegranate, crunchy pistachio pieces, creamy-smooth goat cheese with just a little bite from the pickled beets if you’re brave enough for that sort of adult eating. It’s a plate (or MASON JAR) full of healthful, nutritious ingredients that give you tons of winter glow and plant power. Because, umm, yeah, that’s a real thing.
Carry on, Winter Warriors! with a Winter Rainbow Quinoa Salad to power you through.
Winter Rainbow Quinoa Salad
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 individual salads 1x
Description
This Rainbow Quinoa Salad is packed with colorful, nutritious ingredients! Works perfect to make ahead in Mason jars for easy lunches.
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked red quinoa
- 2 cups chopped pickled or regular cooked beets
- 1 cup pomegranate arils
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- 1/2 cup crushed or chopped pistachios
- 2 cups chopped Opal apples
- 2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach
- a handful of green onions or fresh herbs if you want
- dressing of choice (see notes)
Instructions
- For Mason jar salads, layer in order: 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 cup beets, 1/4 cup pomegranate arils, 1 ounce goat cheese, 2 tablespoons pistachios, herbs, 1/2 cup apples, and 1/2 cup spinach. Store in the fridge for as long as 4-5 days. When ready to serve, toss with the dressing.
- If not making in Mason jars, toss everything together and serve immediately. I also recommend saving some pomegranate arils, crushed pistachios, and crumbled goat cheese to make it look pretty on top. 😀
Notes
I used a store-bought Champagne vinaigrette which was so, so delicious with all the salty-sweet-crunchiness in this salad. That being said, there are so many flavors and textures here that just a little olive oil and balsamic would be light and perfect.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: winter salad, quinoa salad, rainbow quinoa salad
Thanks to Opal apples, my favoritest of all the apples, for sponsoring this Winter Rainbow Quinoa Salad!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy vegetarian recipes. Check it out!
Looks so beautiful food !
Thanks for the recipe.
This salad is delicious! The flavors balance each other well for a complex bite! For the dressing, I used the Neely’s champagne vinaigrette recipe and it went very well with the salad.
Ok, this salad is awesome! The combination of quinoa, pistachios, beets (I steamed them fresh), and ALL HAIL the pomegranate! My family, all 7 of them, are going to bed tonight still raving about the “smoothness of the beets combined with the POP of the pomegranates!”
Thanks for another great salad!
BTW – we made a homemade dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh pressed garlic, and fresh lemon. Divine
I really love to try this quinoa winter salad , tnx for sharing
You are too funny! I’m very glad you hadn’t jumped on the Mason Jar bandwagon before this; You’d have gotten bored by now and we wouldn’t have this beautiful salad. 🙂
Sorry that I had to make a few changes. Gout puts spinach off limits. My son can’t eat onions. I put baby lettuce instead of spinach and left the onion out of his. No other changes and it is wonderful plus eye appealing and healthy. Thank you
Lindsay, your recipes rock my world. So glad one of my fellow blogger friends introduced your site to me last week. I’ve already made 3 of your recipes in the last 4 days! Your photos are gorgeous (so much so that I bought your ebook) and want to try every single recipe on your site!
Thanks, Genevieve!
I follow your blog and read all your posts, but somehow missed this one back in December. I discovered this post thanks to one of your photography classes on Food Blogger Pro. The pictures in the video looked so pretty that I had to find the recipe. I’m not usually a salad fan, but this looks amazing. I wanted to mention that “4 ounces goat cheese” is listed twice in the ingredients list of the recipe. Thanks for all your great recipes and inspiration.
Thanks for the tip, Joy! 🙂
I love this! I’ve been trying to fit in more winter salads, and this one looks totally delicious. Yum!
*Pinned. This looks fabulous and so easy to pop in the lunch bag for lunch.
Hi there,
Love your site I get of it inspiration for healthy veggie meals
i have 2 questions
1) I want to make this Salad for the week – what’s best way of storing each portion without Mason jars to keep salad fresh?
2) if can’t find opal apples what else can I use?
Look forward to hearing from you soon
Many thanks Deepa
I would use Honeycrisp apples! And you can store this is any container. 🙂 The mason jars are just nice for seeing all the layers!
Hi there,
Love your site I get of it inspiration for healthy veggie meals
i have 2 questions
1) I want to make this Salad for the week – what’s best of storing each portion without Mason jars Toledo it fresh?
2) if can’t find opal apples what else can I use?
Look forward to hearing from you soon
Many thanks Deepa
Love the idea of a Christmas salad. This will really dress up my menu (when it’s my year to cook). I was hoping to add an Opal Apple to our orchard. I did not find what zone they are hardy to. I did find there are 2 varieties; one out of the Czech republic in 1999 and one called “Essex UK 1936) – any thoughts? (from zone 4 western MN)
This salad is so delicious. I’m really not a salad person…I usually force myself to buy one during my lunch break, get bored halfway through, and then finish off with a handful of candy. But its a new year and I’m determined to remind to my pre-BBQ-MN State Fair -Roadtrip-Thanksgiving-Christmas weight, and this bad boy has been keeping me happy for 4 days now. Highly recommend! DO NOT skip the pickled beets!
Oh my gosh, love this comment. So glad you liked it Olivia!
I made this last night but with feta and used a balsamic vinaigrette. It was SOOOOOO good! I couldn’t get over all the yummy flavors and textures. I made a bowl for my hubby when he got home and he gobbled it down and said it I wanted to make it again this week he would be more than ok with it. Can’t wait until lunchtime to eat some more of it, thanks for a yummy salad!
That’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks so much Jamie!
This salad is as good as it is beautiful looking. I left out the beets (Yuk). Hate them, but the salad still good The combinations of flavors is awesome. I will be making this over and over!!!!!!
That’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks so much Georgia!
Shopping for this salad was an emotional roller coaster. First, I went to the store anticipating that they would not have Opal apples. Then! Joy of Joys! They had the Opal apples! My elation was quickly stifled by the realization that they were out of pomegranates. So, I went to a second store and they had a stand for pomegranates, but sadly, they had only one, slightly mushy one left. So, in a desperate attempt for color, I bought cranberries. *sigh*
Oh, Monday.
Oh sad! But I hope you love the Opals! 🙂
The Opals are amazing! And the salad was still delicious! Thanks for posting such delicious and beautiful recipes!
This looks sooo good!
I made this sans quinoa to bring as a side for Christmas dinner and then loved it so much I made it again with the quinoa last night for a festive-looking (and healthy) New Years Eve dinner for me and the hubs. Such a yummy combo of ingredients!
Thanks for the comment – I’m so glad to hear that you liked it Susan!
That pomegranate! Those apples! LOVE!
Thanks Mary!
Wow this salad looks so colorful and amazing! Beautiful and healthy perfect combo.
Made this and served it for Christmas dinner… ❤️❤️❤️
Yay! Thanks Kiran.
I like quinoa, but right now I really feel it’s overdone. Sometimes a perfectly fine ingredient gets over blogged. Of course I am not talking about chocolate. That is one ingredients that is impossible to over blog. Kale fell in that category for me. But you have done a great job of making a festive red and green salad full of different textures and flavors. So well done.
So, this is totally random and not in the least related to this post….but I wasn’t really sure where to post it! All of the info that you’ve shared about how you “do” blogging has been so helpful for me-photography, SEO, etc., etc., ad nauseum. I am so impressed by the number of recipes that you are able to turn out. I am lucky to do two recipe posts a week (I also do restaurant reviews, so that helps with posting frequency). I’d love for you to outline how you develop and test recipes while keeping up a regular blogging schedule. Thanks-and merry Christmas!
Thanks Mary! That’s a great idea for a post! 🙂