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    Home » SALADS

    Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Avocado and Grapes

    July 12, 2022 Leave a Comment

    Pin of a bowl of Quinoa Salad with text overlay.

    Quick, healthy, vegan quinoa salad mixed with millet, and tossed with black beans, avocado slices and grapes A simple lime juice and rice vinegar vinaigrette finishes it off.

    Best of all, this salad can be ready in under 30 minutes if you have black beans on hand, and in about 15 minutes if you already have a stash of cooked quinoa in the fridge.

    Updated July 13, 2022

    A bowl of quinoa and millet salad with black beans, avocado, grapes and cilantro.

    We all need salads like this as we wade through hot summer weather. It's healthy, gorgeous and delicious.

    Best of all, it comes together in about 30 minutes if you have the beans on hand.

    Quinoa is ideal for salads, especially if they have citrus in them or are tossed in a citrus based vinaigrette. For example, this Quinoa Salad with Zucchini and Tomatoes is finished with a squirt of lemon. And this Moroccan Citrus Salad with Quinoa includes oranges as a major ingredient, and orange juice is part of the vinaigrette.

    Jump to:
    • Ingredients
    • Recommended Equipment
    • Ways to Simplify This Quinoa Salad
    • Mixed Grains Salad with Avocado and Black Beans Recipe

    Ingredients

    • Vegetable broth - I recommend Better Than Bouillon Roasted Vegetable Base. A good boxed / canned vegetable broth is Swanson's.
    • Quinoa - I used white quinoa, but you can also use red or tricolor quinoa. A quicker option is to purchase frozen cooked quinoa, sold in bags in the frozen foods section of some markets.
    • Millet - Like quinoa, millet is a seed, and is gluten-free.
    • Yellow onion
    • Black beans - Either canned or cook your own from dried. If you start with dried beans, follow these instructions for cooking them on the stove, in the slow cooker, or Instant Pot. If you go with canned beans, be sure to look for ones with BPA-free linings and no added salt. For example, Eden Foods and Trader Joe's.
    • Garlic
    • Red grapes
    • Lime juice
    • Avocado
    • Sunflower kernels
    • Nutritional yeast
    • Herbs and Spices - cumin powder and fresh cilantro

    Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products and foods I use in my kitchen. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. To view my entire storefront of recommended kitchen tools and equipment, check out my shop on Amazon.

    Recommended Equipment

    Heavy bottomed pot
    Large skillet
    Wooden spoon

    Ways to Simplify This Quinoa Salad

    • Cook the quinoa and millet blend ahead.
    • Use only quinoa or millet, but not both.
    • Cook the beans ahead if cooking them for dried.

    Want more vegetarian and vegan dish ideas? I can help you. I have three newsletters for different topics: 1) Weekly Recipes, 2) Vegetarian Meal Plans, and 3) Monthly Vegetarian Tips for helping you to move to a more vegetarian diet. Choose which newsletters are most relevant to your lifestyle, and you'll also get my 5 Secrets to Fuss-Free Dinners.

    Quinoa and millet salad made with black beans, slices of avocado, grapes and cilantro.
    Print Recipe
    5 from 4 votes

    Mixed Grains Salad with Avocado and Black Beans Recipe

    Quick, healthy mixed grains salad of quinoa and millet tossed with black beans, avocado slices, and grapes, dressed with lime juice and rice vinegar.
    Prep Time10 mins
    Cook Time20 mins
    Total Time30 mins
    Course: Salad Main Dish
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: Grains salad
    Servings: 4 servings
    Calories: 461.5kcal
    Author: The Wimpy Vegetarian

    Ingredients

    • 2 cups vegetable broth
    • ½ cup uncooked quinoa I used white
    • ½ cup uncooked millet grain
    • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
    • ¾ cup yellow onion diced
    • 1 ½ cups cooked black beans
    • 2 garlic cloves minced ( or 1 teaspoon Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic Paste)
    • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
    • ½ cup halved red grapes
    • ½ cup fresh cilantro roughly chopped + more for garnish
    • 1 tablespoon lime juice or rice vinegar
    • 1 avocado pit removed and diced into chunks
    • ¼ cup sunflower kernels
    • sea salt and pepper to taste
    • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

    Instructions

    • Bring the vegetable broth to a simmer in a small pot over medium-high heat. Add the quinoa and millet and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the quinoa and millet are cooked and the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.
    • Note: Check out these tips on cooking quinoa.
    • In a medium skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the black beans, garlic, cumin, and grapes, cooking for a few minutes until fragrant. Remove from heat.
    • Transfer the grains to a large mixing bowl, and add onion-bean mixture and toss to combine. Stir in remaining ingredients, season with salt and pepper to taste, and toss with nutritional yeast.
    • Garnish with additional cilantro.

    Notes

    Slightly modified from Natural Noshing blog.
     

    Nutrition

    Calories: 461.5kcal | Carbohydrates: 62.7g | Protein: 15.9g | Fat: 18.2g | Saturated Fat: 2.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4.6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9.7g | Sodium: 481mg | Potassium: 842.2mg | Fiber: 14.6g | Sugar: 5.9g | Vitamin A: 491IU | Vitamin C: 10.1mg | Calcium: 60mg | Iron: 4.5mg
    « Simple Fattoush Salad with Crispy Chickpeas
    Broccoli Salad with White Beans »

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    I'm a mostly vegetarian married to a mostly carnivore and am on a constant hunt for healthy, delicious recipes we'll both like. Most recipes here are vegetarian with tips for adding meat or fish for the meat-eaters at the table. Whether you're vegetarian, or just wanting to eat less meat, I hope you'll find inspiration here to try something new for your own table, even if you're sharing it with someone with different eating preferences.

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