Kale-Quinoa Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

A healthy, hearty salad with great toppings doesn’t have to be hard to come by. Kale-Quinoa Salad with Orange Vinaigrette is easy to make and will serve you well for your next meal.

Do you ever find yourself at a restaurant, wondering what to order? You try to be good and choose something on the healthier side, so you decide on a salad.

Awesome, right? But you know darn well that your salad is a salad in name only. You ordered it just for all the tasty toppings and yummy dressing! Just me?? Yeah, I’ve been down that road more than once!

This kale-quinoa salad with orange vinaigrette is a salad you’ll definitely want for the tasty toppings and yummy dressing, and you’ll keep digging down into it to get to the hearty kale. It’s delicious and healthy!

Restaurant salads can be pretty lame sometimes. I can’t stand when I’m served a salad filled with big white stems and pale, PALE green leaves. This salad is the opposite of that type of lame salad.

If a hearty salad with awesome toppings and fab dressing is your thing, you’ll love my kale Cobb salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, too!

My kale-quinoa salad with orange vinaigrette includes a bit of fruit (clementines and blueberries), and a few veggies like cucumbers and jicama, along with the superfood hero, quinoa. Quinoa is so good for you, in case you didn’t know.

Quinoa is low in calories and fat, high in protein, vitamins and minerals, and has a bunch of other benefits, too. It’s also a naturally gluten-free food, and soooo versatile.

I’ve made a warm breakfast dish using quinoa — creamy breakfast quinoa with roasted butternut squash — and a fun appetizer, too: (baked) quinoa bites with carrot and cilantro.

The dressing is tangy with a nice citrus vibe, and oh-so-easy to make. Don’t you just love homemade dressings? Nothing yucky included!

Here’s a tip for the kale: massage the kale for several minutes before tossing it into your serving bowl. It might sound funny, but it definitely helps break the kale down a bit to make it easier to digest, and remove a bit of its bitterness.

Kale is a super hearty green, and you’ve probably sautéed it or steamed it before serving it. When you toss it into salads raw, it can taste a bit bitter and tough to chew. Massaging it helps, and it will still keep its nice texture.

Your hands may turn a lovely shade of pale green, but it’s worth it!

You’ll love kale-quinoa salad with orange vinaigrette for all the right reasons! I hope you give it a try soon.

Nutrition

Calories

346 cal

Fat

5 g

Carbs

68 g

Protein

8 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

Patricia Conte/Grab a Plate

Yields Serves 4

Kale-Quinoa Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

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Ingredients

For the vinaigrette:
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 olive oil
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and ground black pepper to season
• Zest from two of the clementines used in the salad
for the salad:
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 large bunch kale, stripped from stems and cut into bite-sized pieces, washed and dried
• 2-3 clementines (or tangerines), pith removed, sectioned
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/3 cup jicama, cubed
• 1 medium cucumber, sliced into thin rounds, then halved

Instructions

For the vinaigrette:
1. Combine the orange juice, olive oil, honey, vinegar, and zest in a bowl and whisk to combine. Taste and adjust as needed. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk before serving.
For the salad:
2. After washing the kale, pat it dry it with a few paper towels, then add it to a large bowl. Use your hand to massage and squeeze the leaves togheter for several minutes. Do this until the leaves turn a darker green and soften.
3. Add the kale to a serving bowl. Spoon the cooked quinoa over the top, and arrange the clementines, blueberries, jicama, and cucumber around the edges of the salad.
4. Spoon the vinaigrette over the top, toss, and serve.

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