Mexican Quinoa Salad – Closet Cooking

A quick and easy quinoa salad with Mexican themed ingredients and flavors!

I am a fan of Mexican inspired flavours and ingredients and they go really well in a light and healthy salad like this Mexican quinoa salad! This salad is super easy to make, you basically cook the quinoa, mix all of the salad ingredients, make the dressing and toss the salad and the dressing together! The Salad includes diced, tomatoes, black beans, corn, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro with some optional crumbly cheese. The dressing is a simple combination of oil with citrus juice, lime and orange, along with cumin, paprika and chipotle chili powder. This Mexican style quinoa salad is nice and fresh, the perfect side for any meal or even as a light meal all by itself!

Mexican Quinoa Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 30 minutes Servings: 6

A quick and easy quinoa salad with Mexican themed ingredients and flavors!

Print Recipe

ingredients

For the salad:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups water (or broth)
• 1 cup tomato, diced
• 1 cup black beans, rinsed and drained (or cooked)
• 1 cup corn
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced (or green onions)
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup queso fresco (or feta), crumbled (optional)

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

directions

For the salad:

1. Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a medium saucepan, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes before turning off the heat and letting it sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
2. Optionally let the quinoa cool to room temperature.
3. Mix the quinoa, tomatoes, black beans, corn, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, cheese and the dressing and enjoy!

For the dressing:

4. Mix everything well!

Option: Add more veggies such as diced bell peppers!
Option: Replace the chipotle chili powder with another form of chili heat, such as: cayenne pepper powder, chopped chipotle chilies in adobo, sriracha, etc.
Note: You can control the amount of spicy heat through the jalapeno and chipotle chili powder; use more if you like it hot and less if you prefer it to be milder.

Nutrition Facts: Calories 307, Fat 8g (Saturated 1g, Trans 0), Cholesterol 3mg, Sodium 63mg, Carbs 46g (Fiber 8g, Sugars 3g), Protein 13g

Nutrition by: