This roast pumpkin quinoa salad is made with chunks of pumpkin roasted to golden, crispy-edged perfection in a coating of honey, extra virgin olive oil and spices. Add fluffy quinoa and a few more roast veggies and voila, so much yum!
Guys, I have been in a bit of a salad meal prep rut. In between studying, working and blogging, supermarket visits have been speeeeedy. And I’ve just been grabbing the same few things for weekday salads – some root veggies to roast, plus cucumber, tomato, broccoli, salad leaves. This honey roast pumpkin quinoa salad is just what I needed to shake things up a bit!
Roasting vegetables is my favourite way to cook them; it’s no mess, no fuss, hands-off but with big flavour returns. Especially when it comes to pumpkin. Roasting pumpkin makes it so incredibly sweet and delicious; I like to leave it roasting until the edges start to caramelize a bit and the skin is soft enough to eat. Mmm, and with those crispy edges…
To pump up the roast pumpkin even further, in this recipe it’s coated in a yummy mix of spices and a little honey. Cumin, coriander and cinnamon, together with the honey, give this salad a slightly Moroccan-ish feel. You could also add a pinch of chilli flakes to the mix for a spicy kick.
I made this honey roast pumpkin quinoa salad so I’d have a new exciting option to take to work, so usually I’ll eat this cold. It lasts for 4-5 days in the fridge and is perfect paired with some extra protein like
- feta cheese,
- grilled chicken,
- salmon or tuna.
Yay for meal prep! You could also serve it fresh and slightly warm, with pan-fried halloumi on top. Because what doesn’t work with fried halloumi on top, right?!
If you make this salad don’t forget to take a snap and tag me on Instagram, you can find me at @moniquecormacknutrition 🙂
Honey Roast Pumpkin Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C and grab two non-stick oven trays or line the trays with baking paper.
- Chop pumpkin into small chunks, about 2cm square. Place in a large bowl. Whisk together 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp honey, cumin, coriander and cinnamon in a mug. Pour the mixture over the pumpkin and toss until the pumpkin is coated. Spread the pumpkin out on one baking tray.
- Thickly slice capsicum and red onion. Spread out on the other baking tray and drizzle over 1 tbsp olive oil, and toss around a little. Then, place both trays in the oven to roast for 45 minutes, or until the veggies are nice and soft and starting to brown at the edges.
- While the vegetables are roasting, make the quinoa. Rinse quinoa, place in a saucepan with 1 cup of water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Once cooked leave the lid on the saucepan and allow the quinoa to sit for 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork.
- Once the quinoa and the vegetables are all cooked, allow everything to cool slightly before combining together. You want the mix around room temperature, or just slightly warmer.
- Mix it up. Take a large bowl and add in the quinoa, roasted vegetables, rocket and flaked almonds. Chop the parsley (discarding thick stems) and add to the bowl as well. Drizzle over remaining olive oil, squeeze over the juice of the lemon and season with salt and pepper. Toss it all together. Ready to serve! (Or, ready to store in an airtight container in the fridge.)
Notes
Nutrition
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I made this with butternut pumpkin. Not a fan of cumin and cinnamon, so I left them out and added some of my favourite herbs along with the coriander, instead – thyme, dill, oregano. Super delicious! Thanks!
Not sure the ratio measurements are correct for the quinoa. Followed recipie and was too watery. In reading packet it states one cup of quinoa to two cups of water.
Hi Deb! Thank you so much for stopping by – as that was a typo!! It was meant to be 1 cup of water, I think I originally made a big batch of the recipe and forgot to scale it down properly when writing up the instructions!
Love the dressing x
I left quinoa soaking in boiled water too long!! Try again 🙂
haha thanks Saho! Don’t worry I end up overcooking my quinoa all the time, it actually cooks pretty quickly and I forget!
Excellent recipe for work!!..I will share it with my friends.
Thank you!!
Aw thank you so much Olga! Hope you and your friends enjoy it! 🙂
Hi Monique, I love this recipe! So versatile and portable, but most importantly makes you feel good eating it!I swapped the rocket for shredded English spinach and added diced celery for extra crunch. Additional protein of choice was Spanish sardines. The dressing was kicked up a notch with chopped garlic, chilli, Tasmanian sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper. What a great start to spring in Sydney.
01/09/2019
Thank you so much for this lovely feedback! Your alterations sound yum especially the sardines, they are a favourite of mine!