This quinoa salad, aptly named the everything salad, is a fridge-cleaning salad, a farmer’s market produce-haul salad, a “help! My garden is producing too many veggies” salad, or just a way to eat a super amount of fruits and vegetables in one sitting salad.

Those fruits and vegetables? Oh yeah, we’re packing a lot of them in. The list includes:

Garlic
Lemon
Kale
Peas
Corn
Cucumber
Green Beans
Asparagus
Pomegranate Seeds
Parsley

Hellooo phytonutrients, vitamins, plant powers, and goodness!

Not to mention there’s also quinoa, chickpeas, and a deliciously zesty tahini dressing that pulls the whole thing together and also makes this a filling, colorful, fiber and protein rich, nutritiously crowd pleasing salad that can be catered around a variety of diet restrictions. This salad on its own is vegan, but you can also toss in feta or goat’s cheese or even some pasture-raised grilled chicken if you’d like.

This salad came about after a particularly generous neighbor dropped off about 8 pounds of green beans on my doorstep, the aftermaths of a large market-haul, and the need to significantly clean out the fridge (things were growing!). The more ingredients I threw in this salad, the more tasty it became, and before I knew it I’d found a new way to eat up all my green things.

The best part about The Everything Quinoa Salad, is that if you don’t have an ingredient listed below – don’t fret; swap it with something else and use the ingredient list below as a simple guide. Switch squash for cucumbers, mushrooms for corn, or broccoli for green beans. Add in fresh basil if you don’t have parsley, throw in a diced avocado, and brighten it up with cherry tomatoes. Using frozen corn and frozen peas are great ways to sneak in out of season produce, and the addition of any sort of leftover veg is also game. Anything and everything goes.

I can’t wait to see what you put in your Everything Quinoa Salad. Snap a photo and tag me on Instagram with the hashtag #vegukate.

The Everything Quinoa Salad

Serves 4-6

½ cup quinoa, rinsed
1 cup water
Dash of sea salt

Juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 heaped tablespoon tahini
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Sea salt & pepper to taste

2 stalks of kale, stems removed and chopped
Juice of ½ a lemon
¼ cup peas
¼ cup corn
1 (15 oz) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cucumber, chopped
A large handful of green beans, trimmed and chopped
A few stalks of asparagus, chopped
½ cup pomegranate seeds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
A small handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Prepare your quinoa first. Drain and rinse quinoa and add to a small pot with water and a pinch of sea salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.

While quinoa is cooking, prep and chop all you other ingredients and mix the dressing. In a small bowl add juice of half a lemon, garlic, tahini, apple cider vinegar, and sea salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil until dressing is smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Using the other half of lemon, drizzle over a small bowl of chopped kale. Use your hands to massage lemon into kale, until leaves break down and become wilted – about 3 minutes or so. Set aside.

Steam green beans if desired, or enjoy raw. Chop up all your other ingredients while the quinoa cooks.

Once quinoa is finished cooking add in the remainder of your ingredients. Drizzle with lemon tahini dressing and toss to coat. Serve immediately or let cool in the refrigerator. Leftovers will keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Enjoy!