Thai Peanut Quinoa Salad
A crunchy, flavorful Thai peanut quinoa salad recipe is filled with a rainbow of veggies and tossed in a creamy peanut ginger dressing. This easy Thai quinoa bowl is delicious cold, served as a salad or hot, and served as a warm quinoa bowl. It's perfect for lunch, dinner, potlucks, picnics, or parties.
Servings: 4
Calories: 201kcal
Ingredients
- ¾ cup tri-color quinoa or any color quinoa
- 1 ½ cups low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 head broccoli cut into equal-sized florets
- 2 cups red cabbage chopped
- 1 red bell pepper dicd
- 1 bunch green onions chopped
- 1 ½ cups shredded carrots
- 1 cup English peas or frozen peas (cooked)
- 1 cup shelled edamame cooked
- ¼ cup peanuts optional (garnish)
- ¼ cup cilantro optional (garnish)
Thia Peanut Dressing
- 1 recipe Thai Peanut Dressing
Instructions
Cold Salad
- Cook the quinoa in vegetable broth for 15 minutes covered.
- Allow the quinoa to cool completely.
- Fluff with a fork.
- Add the broccoli, shredded carrots, green onions and red bell peppers, red cabbage, cooked and cooled edamame, and peas to a bowl.
- If you like your broccoli cooked a little in a cold salad, boil it with the peas and edamame for 3 minutes.
- Now, add the cool quinoa.
- Make the Thai peanut dressing by combining the ingredients in a blender.
- Pour the dressing over the top of the salad ingredients.
- Toss to coat.
- Top with peanuts and cilantro for garnish.
Warm Thai Salad
- Combine the vegetable broth and quinoa into a a sauce pan, and bring it to a bowl.
- Cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Leave covered with the heat off.
- In the meantime, heat a wok to medium-high heat.
- Add the green onions and cook for a minutes.
- Then, add the broccoli florets, and stir into the green onions.
- Cook until the broccoli starts to turn dark green.
- If using raw peas, add the peas to the wok. If using frozen peas, wait.
- Now, add red bell peppers, shredded carrots, shelled edamame, and peas if you are using frozen peas.
- Stir until the red cabbage begins to wilt (3 minutes).
- Fluff the quinoa and add to the wok.
- Stir the quinoa into the vegetables.
- Pour the Thai peanut dressing over the cooked quinoa and vegetables.
- Garnish with peanuts and cilantro.
- Serve.
Video
Notes
- Steam, boil, or microwave frozen peas and edamame.
- For a lower-fat option, use homemade peanut butter or PBFit, a powdered peanut butter product.
- Do not add the peanut garnish until right before serving, and add to individual salad to avoid soggy peanuts.
- The Thai peanut quinoa salad can be served raw, partially cooked (broccoli), or warm, cooked in a wok.
- If you don't want to make Thai peanut dressing, buy a vegan bottle of peanut sauce at the grocery store for a shortcut.
- Instead of quinoa, try a vegan Thai noodle salad or vegan pad Thai, zoodle pad Thai.
Nutrition
Calories: 201kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.003g | Sodium: 104mg | Potassium: 1064mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 10521IU | Vitamin C: 206mg | Calcium: 148mg | Iron: 3mg