Southwest Quinoa Bowl

This healthy, refreshing, and vegan Southwest Quinoa Bowl works great as a lunch, light dinner, or even for a picnic.  It’s made with simple ingredients like red bell pepper, jalapeño, red onion, cilantro, black beans, avocado, and lime juice.  Adding fresh lime juice and fresh cilantro brightens up this vegan summer quinoa salad, making it light and flavorful.

The quinoa recipe is oil-free, vegan, and gluten-free!  

Ingredients for Vegan Quinoa Salad

Simple ingredients for a simple salad!

• Quinoa
• Fresh or frozen corn
• Black beans
• Cherry or grape tomatoes
• Red onion
• Red bell pepper
• Jalapeno
• Fresh cilantro
• Fresh lime juice
• Avocado
• Plus dried oregano, garlic powder, and salt

How to Make Southwest Quinoa Bowl

Cook ½ cup of quinoa according to the instructions on the package, and let it cool.  While it’s cooling, prep all of your other ingredients.  The frozen corn can be thawed by placing it in a colander and running warm water over it.  Use your hands to break up any large frozen chunks. Then let it drain before adding it to the salad.

Finely dicing the red onion and jalapeño ensures you don’t get a giant piece of one while you’re eating the quinoa salad.  Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and stir gently to combine.  If serving now, add the diced avocado, otherwise wait to add it when you’re ready to consume.  

Storage

The lime juice will only temporarily help the avocado from turning brown, if prepping ahead of time wait on adding the avocado until ready to serve. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Tips

• Fresh or canned corn can be used instead of frozen corn.
• The beans can be interchanged with any other cooked bean.
• If you don’t like cilantro, it can be left out.
• The stems of the fresh cilantro have a lot of flavor, use them too but finely chop them so you don’t have large pieces.
• Deseed the jalapeño to decrease the heat.
• I think the salad tastes better served immediately, but if you’re prepping this ahead of time, wait to add the avocado until ready to serve. 

Quinoa

Quinoa has a nutty, earthy flavor, and white or tricolor quinoa works well in the salad.  I haven’t tested the recipe using only red or black quinoa, but it should work too.  Red quinoa has a chewier and even nuttier flavor compared to white quinoa.  Black quinoa has an earthier flavor with a slight sweetness.  Actually, the tricolor quinoa is just a mixture of white, red, and black.

More Summer Recipes

• Strawberry Avocado Salad
• Chickpea salad sandwich
• Curry chickpea salad
• Curry chickpea salad wrap

As always, I hope you enjoy this southwestern quinoa bowl with avocado and black beans!

Originally posted on August 20, 2020, updated on July 23, 2021.

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