Is there anything better to savor in the summer heat than a colorful, light, and delicious salad? Besides ice cream or frozen yogurt, of course.
Although I can’t seem to get enough of the aforementioned frozen treats these days, I have also been craving easy-to-prepare salads that are filling enough to enjoy as a main course. Enter this beauty of a salad featuring delicate quinoa, sweet mangoes, crisp red bell pepper, hearty black beans, and aromatic cumin. Every bite is punctuated by a multitude of flavors and a variety of pleasing textures.
As I typed up this post, it occurred to me what a lovely addition diced avocado would be to this salad. I’ve noted this idea in the recipe below, and will be sure to add in some of the creamy fruit the next time I make this… which I have a feeling will be very soon!
Colorful Cumin Quinoa Salad
adapted from Veganomicon‘s Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango
serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as a side dish
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup dry quinoa
- 1/2 ripe but firm mango, peeled, pitted, and diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, preferably organic, scrubbed, seeded, and diced
- 1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 ripe but firm avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced (optional)
- 1/2 cup scallions, chopped
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- scant 1 Tbsp canola or extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin, or more to taste
- Kosher salt, to taste
Directions:
- Cook quinoa according to package directions. You should end up with roughly 1 cup of cooked quinoa.
- In a medium bowl, combine the warm cooked quinoa, mango, red bell pepper, black beans, avocado if using, scallions, and cilantro.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, oil, cumin, and salt. Pour dressing over the salad and stir to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Refrigerate salad for at least 4 hours before serving for best flavor. Serve cold or at room temperature.
This looks amazing! I love Quinoa! My favorite. Mango, avocado, black beans, quinoa- what could be better.
I am digging Quinoa, especially now that I know how to pronounce it! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten it cold, but this sounds awesome!
This looks so tasty and healthy. I can’t wait to try it!
I have everything for this salad, I think I am going to make this today, thanks for the recipe!
I keep seeing quinoa everywhere lately… I’ve never tried it though. Is it like… crunchy? grainy? sticky? I always imagine it’s sort of like sticky rice.
PS- nice photography! I love the colors of the dish in that photo.
Hi Allison,
Thanks for the email and for the compliment – I appreciate it!
As for quinoa… it is a very delicate grain that is neither as chewy nor as dense as brown rice. Texture-wise, it’s closer to the consistency of couscous, but I think it has a more mild flavor. It cooks quite fast (under 20 minutes), is a great source of both protein and fiber, and is also gluten-free.
Hope that helps!
ooh, i’ve totally made something like that, except with corn and no mango. love the mango addition, though :)
[...] Colourful Cumin Quinoa Salad by Healthy Food For Living. [...]
THis salad looks so delicious and healthy!! My kind of food!
I’ve never had quinoa, but this recipe is the perfect excuse to try it for the first time! You have a beautiful blog – I’m looking forward to checking in often and seeing more of your great recipes!
This looks great! I’ve been wanting to try quinoa and this might be the recipe to do it!
PLEASE stop using canola oil in cooking. It is toxic to the liver and becomes a transfat as it is processed from seed to oil. If not cold pressed and organic it is most likely to be GMO and tainted with benzene and/hexane used on the machines that process it. If in plastic at your grocery it is effected by the plastic sitting under the light in the store and increases xenoestrogens in the oil which can lead to cancers.
[...] Fiesta Millet Salad (inspired by this Colorful Cumin Quinoa Salad) [...]
Looks delicious and colorful. Nice!! I hope you will submit this recipe to my new “vegan finds” website:
http://www.FindingVegan.com ~Kathy
I really think lose weight is not some thing too difficult to do if you keep doing exercises everyday and don’t ever eat the fast food. Unfortunately, this seems to hard for many people.