Orange Cranberry Quinoa Salad combines sweet cranberries, fresh oranges, crunchy walnuts and green onion for a healthy, gluten-free side dish.
This orange cranberry quinoa salad is unbelievably refreshing but is made with ingredients that are available (and economical to buy) at your local grocery stores year-round. I love to serve this one when the weather starts to get cool, or during the Holidays for a bright, fresh and healthy option to add to the table.
Plain quinoa can be admittedly boring. So today we’re hitting it with a double dose of tangy oranges, sweetening with those little cranberries, packing some serious crunch with walnuts and rounding it out with the sharp bite of green onion.
After tossing together all of our “dry ingredients” we’ll finish the salad with a drizzle of my citrus vinaigrette which you’ll probably want to use again and again and again!
What’s in this quinoa salad?
Most of these ingredients I bet you have right in your pantry! That’s what I love so much about this recipe. All you need is:
- Quinoa
- Dried Cranberries
- Oranges
- Green onion
- Lemon
- Olive oil
- Dijon
- Salt & Pepper
See, how simple is that?!
Why is so great any time of year?
This salad is so great because it can be served hot OR cold. If you’re wanting a warm dish to serve with some chicken on a cold fall or winter night – this is it! Or, if you want something refreshing during early fall or the warm months, this will do the trick – just chill in the fridge until you want to serve.
If you can’t find fresh oranges in the store, use some canned mandarins. Such a simple little hack! I love that you can serve this to your guests that are gluten and dairy free, too.
Love healthy options to serve to a crowd? Try this Easy Greek Panzanella or my Spiced Winter Fruit Salad.
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Orange Cranberry Quinoa Salad
Orange Cranberry Quinoa Salad combines sweet cranberries, fresh oranges, crunchy walnuts and green onion for a healthy, gluten-free side dish.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Side
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
FOR THE SALAD:
- 2 cups cooked quinoa (1 dry cup)
- 1 orange, peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/4 –1/2 cup of chopped green onions
FOR THE VINAIGRETTE (You’ll only need 4-5 tbsp of this for the recipe):
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp. orange zest
- 1 orange, juiced
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 –1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard (start with 1/4, taste and see if you want more)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper (or to taste)
Instructions
- Start by cooking the quinoa according to the directions on the package.
- When the quinoa is cooked and slightly cool add it to a large bowl with the diced orange, cranberries, walnuts and green onion. Mix well.
- To make the vinaigrette, zest and juice your orange & juice the lemon.
- Add the juice, zest, olive oil, mustard, salt, and pepper into the glass jar & shake!
- Drizzle the entire bowl of goodness with your 4-5 tbsp of the citrus vinaigrette. Serve warm or cold.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: about 1/3 cup
- Calories: 339
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 199 mg
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 12 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 45 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 10 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: quinoa, side, orange, cranberry, holiday
Ingredients
Instructions
This post was originally shared in September 2016 and was updated in September 2019.
Nah – summer’s not ending 😉 In NC, it will still be hot as get out even though I’ll be transitioning to pumpkin and apple baking. That means I can still eat this salad for a couple of months! I love these flavors 🙂
YESS! I can’t wait to see what you make!
This is beautiful!! I love the colors and elements of this salad.
You’re so sweet to say that! Thank you!
YUM!!! I love quinoa salads and this orange/cranberry combo looks awesome.
I really love it!
Ooh, putting grains into salads is one of my favorite things to do; it really gives the salad extra flavor and texture. 🙂 I love how you brought all these flavors together in such a beautiful combo.
Thank you girl!
This is like Thanksgiving 😀 Fall flavor love!
Right?! Like fresh & bright Thanksgiving!
The recipe calls for cranberries but it looks like you used dried cranberries or craisins. Can you pkease clarify?
Yes, dried cranberries.