This Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Hummus Dressing is far from being a boring, limp salad. It's full of exciting tastes and textures making it an exciting option for lunch! Get the recipe below.
A taste of the Mediterranean
When I think of Mediterranean food I think of lots of lovely fresh produce grown in the sunny climates of the Med. From sun blushed tomatoes, to salty olives, this Mediterranean Quinoa Salad makes the most of some of these bright flavours.
In fact, there are lots of delicious veggies in this salad.
How to make a Vegan Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with a hummus salad dressing
Let's look at making the salad in more detail
Salad vegetables
The core of any salad has to be the fresh veggies. In this recipe you'll find.
- Cherry tomatoes
- Yellow pepper
- Cucumber
- Red onion
- Olives
- Parsley
These are all diced finely so you get a little bit of all of them in each bite!
Vegan protein
For protein we have both quinoa and chickpeas. These are fantastic sources of protein, especially if you're following a plant based diet. I've used red quinoa but white quinoa works fine too.
Of course, the quinoa also makes the perfect base for the salad bringing all of the ingredients together.
The chickpeas add some great texture too.
How to make the hummus dressing
The dressing is quite simply made from hummus, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. It's really simple but is jam packed full of flavour.
The extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice provide enough liquid to loosen the hummus and make it drizzle-able.
You can choose to spoon it over or stir through the salad. The choice is yours!
Variations
You'll see that in some of these photos I've also used vegan feta. There are lots of good vegan feta brands out there now. Violife is found in lots of UK supermarkets but I also recommend Strictly Roots and Kinda Co.
The feta cheese is entirely optional but bulks it out a little bit more if you're having it for dinner rather than for a light lunch.
The recipe
Vegan Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Hummus Dressing
Ingredients
For the salad
- 120 g quinoa
- 360 ml water
- 240 g chickpeas from a 400g tin
- 0.5 small cucumber
- 1 yellow pepper
- 0.5 red onion
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 4 tablespoon olives
- 1 handful parsley
- 150 g vegan feta optional
For the dressing
- 2 tablespoon hummus
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 0.5 lemon juice only
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the quinoa to a pan over a medium heat with the 360 ml water.
- Bring the water to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all of the liquid.
- In the meantime, finely dice the vegetables, halve the olives and thinly slice the parsley.
- Whisk together the hummus, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Add water if you'd like the dressing a little more thin.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Once the quinoa is cool and the dressing has been made, toss all the ingredients together and serve.
Nutrition
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