Edamame Quinoa Salad is a delicious recipe that is easy to make. It is a healthy Asian style salad with crunchy edamame and nutritious quinoa. This tasty recipe has an edamame salad dressing you can make in 2 mins.
Salads don't have to be boring! Readers favorites is the Watermelon Cucumber Salad (also vegetarian). Popular festive salads are the Thanksgiving Salad and the Christmas Salad.
If you want to cook the bacon in your instant pot, this recipe will show you how, Instant Pot Bacon.
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Edamame Salad
Many moons ago now, I lived in Japan and was an English teacher for my job. It was a fantastic experience and one that I have cherished as the years have gone by.
We ate A LOT of edamame during that time...we also drank a lot...haha, just kidding. It was moreso that each time we went out, we would start with a bowl of these beautiful little green bean pods and so I have fond memories of those occasions.
Here is Brisvegas Edamame is a popular choice if you go to a Japanese Restaurant but that is about the only place you tend to see them. If you remember from a post I did way back now, I sat and peeled a bowl of broad beans for a vegan Satay Mushroom Dish, well that was probably the last time I will do that as to be honest, it took bloody ages to do.
But....recently I happened upon frozen edamame beans at my local grocery store and hence the origins of today's salad were born.
About the recipe
- The salad was looking drab with the primary ingredients of quinoa, bacon, eggs and chickpeas (needs colour stat!)
- To solve the colour dilemma, green was a good choice, but peas can be boring sometimes!
- I wanted this salad to be 'week night possible' and that means minimising chopping and peeling
- The edamame beans provide colour and a variety of texture....perfect combination I realised!
You can see from the photos for this post, that whilst there are a few different ingredients in the mix, you are not really getting your hands (and kitchen!) dirty with dishes everywhere. The quinoa and eggs can use the same saucepan, albeit at different times. The bacon a simple tray in the oven. The chickpeas only need to be rinsed and the edamame heated in a microwave proof dish.
How to make Edamame Quinoa Salad
This is a healthy and easy salad to make with an Asian twist!
The edamame add pops of colour and are so simple to prepare.
Last week I started this salad on a Wednesday night as I had all of the ingredients and had just come in from yoga and wanted so badly to have a healthy homemade lunch on Thursday and Friday. I was able to whip this up, have my lunches covered and one dinner, you can even grill a bit of haloumi, through it on top and have it for a meal.
How to make dressing for quinoa salad recipes
Salad dressings can be so easy to make at home!
The dressing for this edamame quinoa salad is one of my favourites to make. It takes only 2 mins and combines just 3 ingredients. Boy does it taste GOOD!
The drizzle has fresh flavours - greek yoghurt, basil pesto and lemon juice, it is creamy, zesty and smooth!
When making a salad like this, I usually boil a few extra eggs as they are so handy to have in the fridge for when life gets busy!
How to serve Edamame Quinoa Salad
Depending on the occasion for your Edamame Quinoa Salad, you can drizzle and toss ready to go or take the drizzle and dress just before serving.
It even works to have tossed and dressed the salad and then reheat portions for lunches during the week. It is very versatile in that sense.
One of my favourite things about making these salads is knowing exactly what has gone into them. It is entirely possible otherwise to grab something out and about and only after loading up your fork do you thing about how fresh your dish is and what is in the dressing.
I find that making this on the weekend, means I can have Monday - Friday lunches sorted so when at work, you can grab, heat and eat.
📖 Recipe
Edamame Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
Edamame Quinoa Salad
- 2 cups dried quinoa
- 4 cups water
- 1 200g edamame shelled
- 4 eggs free range
- 200 grams streaky bacon
- 1 425g chickpeas
Basil Pesto Drizzle
- 1 cup low fat greek yoghurt
- 2 tablespoon basil pesto
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place a wire rack over a lined baking tray and place bacon onto rack
- Cook bacon for 20mins until crispy
- In a medium sized saucepan, boil the eggs for 6 minutes. Then rinse, fill saucepan with cold water and peel when cooled
- Use the same saucepan to cook the quinoa by adding the 4 cups of water and 2 cups of dried quinoa. Turn off heat once the water has been absorbed
- When the bacon is cooled, chop into small pieces using kitchen scissors
- When the eggs are peeled, finely slice
- Drain and rinse chickpeas
- Heat edamame for 3 minutes in the microwave
- Combine quinoa, edamame, eggs, bacon and chickpeas in a large salad bowl
Basil Pesto Drizzle
- Combine yoghurt, lemon juice and basil pesto in blender jug, blitz to combine.
Notes
- This salad can be served warm or cold
- For a dinner option, grill some haloumi pieces and place on top
- I used tri colour quinoa but any colour will do
- You will have extra drizzle than you need. This is so you can redrizzle if you are taking the salad to work for lunches etc
- Store bought basil pesto is fine - I use the Basil Pesto Dip from Aldi for mine (fridge section)
- The eggs will take 6 minutes to be hard boiled. If you want them to be a bit runnier, then cook them for 4 minutes instead. (They will be a bit messier, but then you get a lovely bit of runny yolk mixed into the dish!)
Marie-Charlotte Chatelain says
Ok, this is going straight onto my meal prep list! Minus the bacon - I got some coconut bacon to use up! YUMYUM! Mouth is already watering!
Ashley @ Sweetpea Lifestyle says
Yum!!! This was so delicious!! Protein-packed lunch, made quick!
Adrianne says
Perfect, great to hear, thanks Ashley!
Kiki Johnson says
Am I putting this on my meal plan like RIGHT NOW? YES I AM!!! Total no-brainer and with the bacon - oh man, how can this not be amazing!
Adrianne says
I know, the bacon!!! Right. It is soooo good. Thanks for your positive vibes. Cheers