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
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
- 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
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.
Mixed Grains Salad with Avocado and Black Beans Recipe
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.
Leave a Reply