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This is absolutely amazing!! My husband is a physician who truly believes in the power of a non-processed, whole foods diet. With six children, yummy, family friendly recipes can be a huge challenge. This dish was a hit and has made my “make it again” list!! I’m thrilled to have found your site and look forward to following along… And more recipie adventures!! Thank you for what you do and the time you share 🙂
So here’s the deal: this quinoa salad is the current love of my life, and our oven and stove are broken.
Like, leaking gas into our house whenever it turns on and I’m not allowed to bake anything at the risk of exploding the building. And as I might have mentioned 100 times this year, we also don’t have a microwave, so I’m at this point in my life where I’m being forced to eat something cold, and considering that we also don’t have a freezer for ice cream (this is turning into a perfect sob story of life abroad) I am being forced to eat a cold salad.
With that darn quinoa, AGAIN, because it’s already cooked and there’s a bunch left over in the fridge. How annoying/awesome.
The last cold salad I had was so delicious: a Chopped Thai Chicken Salad. And it was chopped. Hey, guess what my favorite kind of salad is? CHOPPED.
This salad comes in with equally high marks from both me and Bjork. It’s sososo good that I’ve made it at least four times in the last, er, two days. Something healthy that we both like? Heck yes.
I didn’t even plan on posting it, actually, because it’s so simple and I’ve posted so many quinoa recipes lately that I thought it might be overkill. Because actually, it IS overkill. Buuuut then the oven broke so I had to. Ha-ha to you, Alfredo veggie lasagna. Salad wins today.
500 quinoa recipes later, quinoa is totally growing on me, but the star of this salad isn’t really the quinoa. It’s the perfectly juicy, crisp, colorful produce like sweet pink apples, fresh greens like spinach and arugula and parsley, and earthy-delicious carrots.
And here’s the kicker. The “dressing” for this salad is store-bought apple chutney. Not joking. I found some Stonewall Kitchen apple chutney at our little neighborhood grocery store here in the Philippines (?!) and it was in my cart before I even knew what had happened. And as if that isn’t enough, then I noticed that there was not just one but TWO varieties of apple chutney on the shelf. Sooo you can’t find raspberry jam, but you can definitely find apple chutney. What in the world.
I actually liked the second variety of apple chutney better – the brand is Essential Waitrose. It had walnuts and caramelized onions and chili powder and lottts of sticky-sweet apples. I could definitely eat it with a spoon. But since that’s a European brand, I’m afraid that’s not going to work for you North American friends. I’d suggest just finding any apple chutney (or something similar) with a spicy, warm, nutty, sweet flavor.
So my final thoughts on this salad are that I L-O-V-E-D it.
- The flavor and texture combo was so yummy: fresh and sweet, crispy-crunchy-soft, and spicy from the chutney.
- It only took 5 minutes to make since the quinoa was already cooked.
- It can be eaten with chips. Pita chips, pretzel chips, brown rice chips, Hint of Lime chips… trust meeee.
- It can be eaten plain. Totally a meal-worthy salad, says Bjork. See what I mean?
If there’s one thing I need right now, it’s chips. I mean, salad. Any time, day or night.
I hope your oven “breaks” soon.
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Chopped Apple Quinoa Salad
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
This super easy chopped apple quinoa salad has fresh grated apples, carrots, mixed greens, quinoa, almonds, and spicy apple chutney.
Ingredients
- 2 apple, grated or chopped (2 heaping cups)
- 2–3 large carrot, grated or chopped (2 heaping cups)
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts
- 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
- 1/3 cup apple chutney – my favorite was an apple walnut variety
- chopped or whole mixed salad greens, like spinach or arugula (optional)
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Prep the ingredients and allow to chill in the fridge. I’ve had best results with mixing when the quinoa is cool and crumbly instead of hot and sticky.
- Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and toss until well combined. Serve immediately, either plain, with chips, or on fresh greens.
Notes
If you want to eat this over several days, I would suggest keeping all the ingredients in separate containers in the fridge and then just mixing up individual servings when you’re ready to eat. It doesn’t stay fresh for more than a day.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: apple quinoa salad, apple chutney, quinoa salad
Such a bummer about you stove/oven, I think I would be freaking! Hey at least you got this awesome salad out of it and I mean the weathers getting warmer so everybody’s all about colf salads! I love the apple, it sound like the perfect sweet addition!
Thanks Tieghan! I loved the sweetness too. and the texture. grated apple is my fave!
Looks delicious! And there’s no such thing as quinoa overkill… to me at least 🙂 Good luck with the oven and stove situation – that is kind of a bummer for the whole food blogging thing!
Every day feels like an obstacle course. None of this, can’t find that, and oops, broken oven… you just never know. 🙂 I guess that’s not limited to life abroad – that’s just life, right?!
Apple and quinoa together are a match made in heaven! This salad kinda makes me sorry/notsorry for your oven.
Exactly. 🙂
I can TOTALLY arrange the oven breaking thing if it means I get to make this salad – pinned for dinner next week! Along with like 85 more of your recipes… 😉
A healthy meal worthy salad? Break your oven more often– this sounds totally yummy.
Wow, so sorry to hear about your broken oven + no microwave + no freezer. Eeesh. But it looks like you are doing a fantastic job improvising! This salad sounds super healthy and refreshing and good thing you had all of that left over quinoa! 😉
I was so happy when I remembered it all sitting in my fridge! 🙂
How funny that you can find Waitrose products in the Phillippines! I can’t afford to shop in Waitrose at home (it’s a bit pricey!) but maybe that’s where I’m going wrong….I just need to look for these brands while I’m abroad! Anyway, the salad looks yum 🙂
Do you live in the UK? Bummer about it being pricey – I had no idea! But I do know that everything I buy from their line is amazing. Just bought these jelly babies (…weird…) yesterday for a TV snack and they were SO good. Like, I don’t even love jelly candy and I loved it. Maybe I should stock up on some of their stuff before I come home!
You can never have too many quinoa salad recipes….especially when they look like this!
Oh my gosh…. without an oven? I can live without a microwave, did it for over a year, but not an oven! Yikes! Quinoa is the next best thing to apple pie IMO, great little grain with many many millions of uses 🙂
Cheers, hope your oven is working again real soon!
Thanks Tiffany!
Did you know you can cook quinoa in your rice cooker??!!! Who cares about a broken stove!! 🙂
I did! it’s the only way I’ve ever made it! 🙂 I was happy that I just had some cooked leftover quinoa in the fridge and didn’t even have to take out the old rice cooker. Bam! Done.
This sounds delicious!
I hope your oven is fixed soon! If it’s not, you should do a no-bake dessert series 😉
I know! I actually thought about three or four different no bake dessert recipes that I love, but all of them involved boiling butter or sugar or something on the stove top (which was also broken). And ice cream… no freezer… it’s like a circus over here. 🙂
That is amazing that you found Stonewall Kitchen products!!! Right from my home State of Maine!!
Is that where it’s made? Just one more reason I need to visit Maine someday. I love all their stuff!
I am not sure if it still is, but the original store is here. Yes, Maine is beautiful!!
BTW..we made this salad this weekend and it is fabulous!!
Great! Thanks Wendi!
I think that looks delicious, and I think you are a really good sport. 🙂
Keep up the good work, you’ll be back before you know it and these days will then be the “best days of your life.” 🙂
Aloha
I couldn’t survive if my oven/stove broke. Of course, being forced to take a break from the kitchen might not be such a bad thing; no cooking, no cleaning. Huh. I wonder how I can ‘break’ my stove for a few days.
I love quinoa. It’s the only small grain my mouth is happy about. I adore it cold and with a good combination of sweet and savory. So, this is perfect. It’s almost as though you created it just for me. Thanks! 😀
I sort of like the idea of forgaging (in the supermarket or farmers market) for dinner, and making stuff on the fly (read, no oven). And the only thing I use a microwave for is popping air popcorn and heating milk… but now I’m just being cruel, because as simple as that sounds… you don’t have that option either. Sorry. I can imagine that everyday is both an blessing and an adventure for you and Bjork. I live in a small apartment, and the mere thought of turning on my oven (unless it’s winter) is agony (It gets HOT here in Northern Virginia in the summertime). I’ve printed this wonderful recipe and expect that I may be making a lot of this, this summer! Thank you for sharing this delicious looking/sounding recipe w/us!
You said it perfectly! A blessing and an adventure. Thanks for the comment 🙂
Hoping your oven gets repaired soon! This salad sounds and looks wonderful and that Apple Chutney seems like the perfect dressing for it.
This sounds like a wonderful combination of ingredients. I have some mango chutney in the refrigerator…I wonder if it would work with that!
I wondered the same thing myself! I think you could make it work!
there is nothing called too many quinoa recipe!
I need to find me some of that chutney!
Apple chutney? That’s brilliant! I wish it was easier to find in the States. I’ve used salsa as my salad dressing before; it gives the salad a spicy kick without any of the oily greasiness from some other typical salad dressings. I’ll have to try chutney sometime, even if I can’t find apple!
Me too – I use salsa all the time!
Dang it, there you go making me want to cook somethin’ healthy again…
I made this tonight with some baked coho salmon and it was FABULOUS! I didn’t happen to have any chutney on hand (and I was too lazy to go to the store) so I substituted some quince butter I had in the cupboard — yummo! Thanks for sharing your great recipes!
We recently decided to go wheat free so quinoa is a big part of my menus! I will be making this again………
Beth! That sounds so good! I love the salmon idea. Awesome.
Mmmmm my kind of salad!
Guess what I made today? My own Apple Walnut Chutney!!! I couldn’t find any anywhere, so I decided to find a recipe and make my own…..Lindsay these things you have me doing!!!! Now tomorrow–I will make this salad and we will see if it was all worth it. I will keep you posted…….
Wow so amazing!!! 🙂 Good work!
To be honest, I wasn’t too sure about the chutney because it definitely has a unique taste–strong, bold, good but very different–however, it was EXCELLENT in my salad today…I loved it!!!! Good call on that one Lindsay! Now if you can come up with some other recipes to use it in, I’d be forever grateful.
Thanks Janet! I need to buy some more… or maybe you should email me your new recipe! 🙂
I definitely will do that.