Cranberry Apple Quinoa Salad
This vibrant salad is the perfect fall side dish and an excellent addition to your Thanksgiving spread. At Delish, we believe salads should be anything but boring, and this one delivers with crunchy apples and tart cranberries. The slightly sweet, lemony dressing is quick to make and so delicious you'll want to drizzle it on everything. Use your favorite apples—I love the balance of crunch, sweetness, and tartness from Granny Smith and Honeycrisp. Feel free to customize with goat cheese instead of feta or swap pecans or walnuts. It’s a flexible, crowd-pleasing recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups water or low-sodium vegetable broth
- 3/4 cup tricolor quinoa, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1 large bunch curly kale (about 5 oz.), roughly chopped
- Kosher salt
- 2 medium unpeeled apples, such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp, chopped
- 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
- 2 oz. crumbled feta
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa is softened, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Fluff with a fork, then add cranberries on top. Cover and let steam 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place kale in a large bowl; season with 1 teaspoon salt. Massage kale with your hands to combine, about 1 minute. Add quinoa, cranberries, apples, onion, pecans, and feta to kale and toss to combine.
- In a small bowl, whisk mustard, oil, honey, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes, season with salt and black pepper.
- Pour dressing over salad and toss to combine.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!