This salad is really similar to the second blog post I ever posted on this site! I think I was a pretty good cook when I first started this blog, but my creativity in the kitchen and cooking abilities have really evolved since then. This is the first of a few recipes that I really liked but wanted to kick up a notch, and I also really wanted to re-do the photos!
I’m not a huge city girl, the town I grew up in only had about 2,000 people, but one nice thing about living in a big city is that there is always something fun going on. This weekend was the Meet Yourself festival in downtown Tucson, affectionately nicknamed the Eat Yourself festival because it is pretty much just a bunch of food vendors! We were excited to get out of the house and go downtown but it was SO hot down there! It was so hot that they had sunblock stations set up. It didn’t feel at all like I would hope mid-October weather to feel. All I wanted to do was bury my head in my raspberry sorbet!
We did have a lot of fun but I was a hot mess and I’m pretty sure i got sunburned through the thick layer of sunblock I was wearing! Basically my mind is all about this fall quinoa salad and this salad and these muffins but the Arizona weather just won’t catch up! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some cooler weather soon because I have lots more fall recipes planned for you 🙂
Fall Quinoa Salad with Kale, Sweet Potato & Maple Tahini Dressing
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes (4 cups)
- Olive oil
- Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cups chopped kale, I used curly kale
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
Maple Tahini Dressing:
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Place the chopped kale into a large bowl and add lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Massage the kale for about 1 minute and place in refrigerator until ready to use.
- Cook the quinoa according to package directions. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss the sweet potato with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper. Roast the sweet potatoes until fork tender, 25-30 minutes, flipping once.
- Add all dressing ingredients to a jar and whisk until combined. Add the quinoa, sweet potato, walnuts and dried cranberries to the bowl with the kale and mix until everything is combined. You can either add the dressing to the big bowl of salad and mix it in or add the dressing to each individual serving of salad.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Salad, Gluten Free, Vegan
I have all of the ingredient to make this for my daughters wedding shower this Saturday. It’s Thursday evening. Is it too early to make it and store in the refrigerator ?
I think that should be fine! I hope you enjoy 🙂
Can you believe this weather?! At least it has cooled off a bit the past few days, but then I heard it’s supposed to heat right back up! This salad looks delicious, all flavors and foods I love! We should try to bump into each other at Sprouts soon. 🙂
Eeeek! This salad, Izzy! I am seriously blown away be all the gorgeousness! And I mean, you TOTALLY hit all the fall marks! Can’t pull my eyes away from those pretty sweet potatoes!
Awww, thank you so much, Sarah!! I’m happy to say that it tastes as good as it looks 🙂
Oh this is so my kind of salad!!! That maple tahini dressing!! I want to drizzle that straight into my mouth! haha
Oh gosh, I can’t imagine it still being that hot! We’ve been having warmer days lately but not anywhere near by like by you!!
I knew you would like this salad, Ashley! I’ve been putting this dressing on everything lately! I think it is finally starting to cool down, thank god!
This salad is stunning! Love the pops of color and that dressing 🙂
Thank you so much, Medha!
What a great salad for fall! It’s weird, because it’s October but in the 90’s still here in California. Tricky to think of what to make for dinner. This salad will definitely be on the menu this week!
What is up with all the hot October weather?!! I think it is finally staring to cool down here (crossing my fingers!). I think you would love this salad, Natalie 🙂
Wow, this salad is gorgeous! It has all of my favorite flavors too. I hope it cools down for you soon. Here in Florida the weather started cooling down and it is perfect now.
Thank you, Ashley!! I bet Florida is perfect right now! I’m jealous 🙂
Kale and sweet potatoes and tahini! That’s the kind of dinner this girl loves. And you took kale and made it hearty, which kind of makes you a genius.
Thank you so much, Annie! This girl loves a dinner like that too 🙂
Oh my goodness! I can’t imagine heat like that in October, Izzy! You must have been sweltering/melting. I think I would have wanted to bury myself in sorbet as well. And this salad…. welcoming Fall, yes! I was just thinking about some of my earliest recipes too and how I want to go back and reshoot/rewrite them. No doubt it’s interesting and fun to see how one’s photography has improved. And there was Cheeto, your tester! ha!!
It is crazy, Traci!! It is supposed to rain this weekend though and I’m hoping that cools things down for good! The sorbet really helped, haha! It really is great to see how our photography has evolved but sometimes I want to forget how bad it was at one point 🙂
This salad is just gorgeous, Izzy! I love that you paired kale and quinoa with sweet potatoes. This definitely makes me think of fall and all things delicious, especially with that dressing!
Thank you so much, Gayle! I think I could survive off this salad this fall 🙂
This has all the best flavors of fall and many of my favorite ingredients in one salad. I’m glad you brought this one back to our attention Izzy even if it doesn’t feel like fall there quite yet. Hope it does soon though!
Thank you, Katie! I think it is finally starting to cool off and I’m getting excited about fall!