A simple yet delicious Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad recipe made gluten free, vegetarian and delicious with honey roasted beets, quinoa, apple, walnuts and topped with goat cheese. The perfect dinner or make-ahead lunch for a busy week!
Well hello there sweet honey-roasted beets.
Super sweet and earthy beets that just taste so good beside tart green apples and onions and quinoa with a little goat cheese sprinkled on top and all dressed up in a lemony sauce. This, my friends, is how I do dinner and lunch (and then lunch again) gluten free and veggie-packed styles.
This is a good salad.
MORE ABOUT THIS ROASTED BEET AND QUINOA SALAD RECIPE: TIPS AND TRICKS
Any beet will do for this recipe but this time I opted for the candy-cane beet. (I’ve also done the regular purple beet and the golden beet but the candy-cane, red and white striped beet just might be my new favourite!) I mean, beyond how pretty these things are when you cut them down the middle, they also don’t stain your hands, your cutting boards or anything else they might just even come close to. And that, friends, is winning.
And the candy-cane (and golden beet for that matter) taste super similar to the tradition purpley beet we all know and love. Sweet, earthy, dense. They taste just like beets are suppose to. Which means that when they are roasted with a little bit of honey they are still super crazy delicious. Beet candy, if I may.
And when this so called beet candy is mixed with some tart apple, crunchy walnuts and tangy-salty goat cheese and a zippy lemony dressing, they perfect salad texture-flavour comes together. And it is good.
The base of this salad is quinoa because we all know quinoa salad anything is beyond my jam right now and quinoa on its own is a perfect protein and very much delicious. The quinoa can be made fresh for this salad or made ahead of time. Whatever you gotta do.
Everything – quinoa, beets, nuts, apple, onions – is mixed together with that lemony dressing that’s sweetened with just a touch of honey. It’s really that easy. Best with a little (who are we kidding – a lot!) of goat cheese over top.
Serve this roasted beet and quinoa salad for dinner and keep leftovers for lunch all week long!
Sweet Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
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A simple yet delicious Roasted Beet and Quinoa Salad recipe made gluten free, vegetarian and delicious with honey roasted beets, quinoa, apple, walnuts and topped with goat cheese. The perfect dinner or make-ahead lunch for a busy week!
Ingredients
For the Roasted Beets:
- 5–6 small beets, washed, peeled, chopped into bite-sized pieces (use regular, golden or candy-cane beets; about 2 heaping cups of beets)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 tablespoon honey
For the Salad:
- 2 cups cooked quinoa, (warm, cooled slightly or chilled)
- Roasted beets from above
- 1/2 cup tart green apple, peeled and very finely chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup green onion, thinly sliced (or use purple onion)
- 1/4 cup chopped, raw walnuts (or use favourite nut or omit for nut-free option)
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (from about 1/2 a lemon)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or use more lemon)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Salt and pepper
- 1/8 – 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled (depending on how cheesey you like it)
Instructions
For the Roasted Beets:
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a baking mat for easy clean up.
- Place chopped beets on the baking sheet and drizzle with oil then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until fork-tender. Remove from oven and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of honey (or a little more if you like them really sweet), toss to coat evenly and then continue baking for 5 more minutes.
- Remove from oven and set aside to let cook to touch.
For the Salad:
- Add cooked quinoa (about 1/2 cup dried quinoa cooked according to package directions) to a large mixing bowl. Add beets, apple, onions, walnuts and parsley to the quinoa bowl.
- In a small mixing bowl or in a jar with a tight-fitting lid, add olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, honey and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk or shake until well combined.
- Pour dressing over top of quinoa and the veggies. Toss or stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.
- Crumble goat cheese on top of salad.
- Serve immediately or keep in an air-tight container in the fridge for lunch all week long.
I’m Rebecca - Registered Holistic Nutritionist, recipe developer, food photographer, writer, taste-tester and the friendly face behind Always Nourished.
We made this today and it was so delicious!! I’m not a fan of walnuts so we opted for pistachios. My husband was so surprised at how much he liked it. We have lots left over to take for lunches this week!
Will definitely make this again!
★★★★★
This was so good! I added a chopped sweet potato, chopped dried cherries, toasted walnuts and almonds. For the dresding I used red wine vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, garlic salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder. I made two salads, one with quinoa and one without for my grain-Free daughter. Definitely a keeper!
★★★★★
This salad is beautiful! It looks amazing! It has some of my favorite flavors in it! And I am in love with Quinoa right now!
Love the flavours in this!!! Where do you find candy cane beets around here? I’ve only been able to (occasionally) find them at the market in the summer!
I was super surprised to find candy cane beets too. I got them at a Waterloo Zehrs. They were in a 3 or 5 lb bag with golden beets too (which I can never find either!!). It was definitely a great find.
I an’t believe I haven’t had roasted beets all winter! Time to fix that. I bet this salad would be great with nut “cheese”, too, for a dairy-free option.
Those beets are just so beautiful, I love that you roasted them with honey to bring out their natural sweetness! One of my favorite flavor combinations is beet with goat cheese, I can’t wait to give this recipe a try – it looks delicious!
★★★★★
You had me at roasted beets! I am super excited to try this salad! It has everything I love in it!
How beautiful are those beets?! This quinoa salad looks amazing!
I love beets and a good salad! This is the perfect winter salad with the quinoa, a comfort food salad!
Between you and Sarah I’m going to have to give beets another shot. I know they are so fantastic for runners and can put them in a smoothie, but ah the taste anywhere else just doesn’t work for me.
I LOVE roasted beets!!! Especially if you add a touch of something sweet like honey! This is winter salad perfection!
Such a great combination of flavors!! Thanks so much for proposing this avocado Eat More Veggies Challenge! It’s been SO much fun 🙂