Jeweled Beet, Orange, and Quinoa Salad

When you need a burst of color, look no further than this jewel-like Beet, Orange, and Quinoa Salad. It’s a rich ruby red and green that will brighten up any dinner table. And it’s delicious enough to win over even beet salad skeptics.

Making this beet, orange, and quinoa salad is super easy when you use peeled and steamed beets and pre-cooked quinoa from Melissa’s Produce. (Of course, you can steam your own beets and cook your own quinoa too.) And what makes this salad so rich and full-bodied is our favorite Garcia de la Cruz extra virgin olive oil from Spain.

Let’s check out this beet, orange, and quinoa salad recipe:

Beet, Orange, and Quinoa Salad Recipe

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Beet, Orange, and Quinoa Salad

A beautiful jewel-like salad with beets, blood oranges, watermelon radishes, and quinoa.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword beets, blood orange, quinoa, salad

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 1 500-gram package Melissa's Produce precooked quinoa (or two cups cooked quinoa)
• 1 8-ounce package Melissa's Produce steamed baby beets, diced (or one cup diced steamed beets)
• 2 blood oranges, peeled and sectioned
• 1 watermelon radish, thinly sliced and chopped
• 2 cups mixed fresh greens
• 1/4 cup Garcia de la Cruz extra virgin olive oil
• juice of one lemon (approximately 1/4 cup
• 2 tbsp coarse grained mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Unpack the quinoa, place it in a large salad bowl, and break apart the cooked quinoa with a large fork or potato masher. Add the chopped beets, blood orange section, chopped watermelon radish, and fresh greens, and mix well.

2. In a small container, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss. Serve immediately.

What’s not to love about this salad? We’re serving it for Valentine’s Day because of its brilliant red and pink colors. But you could serve it anytime that you need a splash of brilliant color on the table.

A few thoughts on the ingredients: Beets are great; preparing them takes some work. If you use the prepared beets from Melissa’s, you can have this salad ready to go in just minutes. Same goes for the quinoa.

Blood oranges add a special dark-pink color and tangy-sweet taste to the salad. This isn’t necessarily a winter salad per se, but it’s a great salad to eat at the peak of citrus season.

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And watermelon radishes – talk about an easily overlooked vegetable! They may be a drab grey-green on the outside, but slice them open and they are a brilliant pink.

The combination of beet, orange, and quinoa is a great one. These beets have a nice mellow, earthy taste, complimented by the tart sweetness of the blood oranges. The quinoa adds heft and substance with full, hearty texture. Then the olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard brings the whole dish together with rich and tangy flavors.

Bonus note: Your plant-based friends (and everyone) can enjoy this salad because it’s vegan.

Bonus offer: You can try this olive oil – AND get a 10% discount – by going to Garcia de la Cruz Olive Oil and entering code 10JOLLYTOMATO in your order.

Let us know if you try this recipe! In the meantime, if you’re also a beet lover, check out these Easy Vegan Beet Noodles.

Blogger disclosure: Melissa’s Produce and Garcia de la Cruz sent us produce and olive oil to sample for a recipe contest. We did not receive compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are our own.