Sun-Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad is for lunch today. If you have ever wanted to make a sun-dried tomato salad, today is the day to do it.
How to make a Sun-dried Tomato Quinoa Salad
It is pretty simple! We need to cook our quinoa and then prepare the sun-dried tomatoes and other salad ingredients.
For this recipe we even make our own sun-dried tomato salad dressing!
As you know, I have heaps of recipes on Sweet Caramel Sunday for salads. If you didn't know that I will leave some favourites at the bottom of this post that you can check out.
I am a huge fan of making an enormous salad on a Sunday and then portioning out into lunches for the week ahead. I find that doing that means you don't have to buy lunch at work and you have something healthy to look forward to at lunch time.
This Sun-Dried Tomato Quinoa salad will tick a few boxes for sure. Variety is the spice of life and it has that in spades!
Sun-dried tomato salad recipe questions answered
About the recipe:
- Sun-Dried tomatoes are so delicious and an exciting addition to so many meals
- Quinoa is my go to salad grain. It multiples like gremlins when cooked and it tastes so good for you
- Lentils are the perfect salad ingredient
- This salad will last for DAYS in the fridge, there is nothing to wilt
How to make Sun-Dried Tomato Salad dressing
You will know me by now well enough to know that I LOVE using greek yoghurt in my salad drizzles. This one is no exception. A basil pesto rrizzle is the key that brings everything together. It is the same drizzle that I use in my Edamame Quinoa Salad.
Whether you call it a salad dressing or drizzle. Homemade salad dressing is best!
The photo below shows you what the drizzle will look like after it has been blitzed (which takes no time at all, yay!)
How to use Sun-dried tomatoes in salads
That is an easy question to answer!
As sun-dried tomatoes can be chewy, it is best to cut them up so that they are bite sized in the salad. There are so many different ways to use sun-dried tomatoes in salads:
- instead of using fresh tomatoes
- to bring a depth of flavour to the dish
- for texture
- for colour
- to spice up the traditional salad ingredients
The 'hard work' for this recipe is pretty basic - just cooking up the quinoa and crisping up the bacon. Once those things are done then the fun part of bringing it all together begins.
Sun-dried tomato salad dressing
This dressing is incredibly easy to make.
It is literally 2 ingredients, into the blender, mixed together then ready to use to dress and toss the salad.
The drizzle gives a lovely flavour and texture to the salad and if you like you can take the remaining drizzle to work so that you can re-drizzle when you reheat for your lunches.
How to toss sun-dried tomato salad
After we have dressed the salad, we simply take 2 spoons and use them to toss the salad. It will end up looking like the photo below.
Did you know
One of my friends and I are doing a loooooooooog walk (35km to be exact) this weekend. It is our 3rd year in a row and whilst I am looking forward to it, your body starts to get sore about 3 hrs into the walk (it takes about 6 hrs 30 mins to complete). I wanted to fuel my body this week with all of the good stuff to ensure that on the day I am A-Ok for the event.
Trust me folks, this salad fills you with the good stuff!
Enjoy!
Adrianne
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📖 Recipe
Sun-dried Tomato Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
Sun-Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad
- 2 cups dried quinoa makes 4 cups cooked
- 4 cups water
- 280 g sun-dried tomatoes
- 200 g streaky bacon
- 1 bunch shallots thinly sliced
- 1 425g lentils drained and rinsed
Basil Pesto Drizzle
- 1 cup greek yoghurt low fat
- 2 tablespoon basil pesto
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
Sun-Dried Tomato Quinoa Salad
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and a wire rack
- Add water and quinoa to a medium sized sauce pan. Cook quinoa until the water is absorbed (medium heat).
- Place bacon on wire rack and cook for 15-20 minutes or until bacon is crispy
- Drain oil from sun-dried tomatoes and set aside
- Drain and rinse lentils and set aside
- Slice shallots (green onions) finely
- Combine quinoa, sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, shallots and lentils into a large salad bowl
- Dress with Basil Pesto Drizzle and toss to combine
Basil Pesto Drizzle
- Combine greek yoghurt, basil pesto and lemon juice in a blender jug and blitz to combine
Video
Notes
- I used tri colour quinoa but you can use any colour you like
- Draining the sun-dried tomatoes will ensure that they are less oily when thrown into the salad
- Use a wire rack to cook the bacon, so the fat drips off onto the lower tray
- If you don't have lentils, chickpeas are a good substitute
- For vegans, you can get a greek yoghurt which is vegan friendly at the grocery store and use fake bacon to have the same combination, but a recipe more suited to your lifestyle
- I use the Basil Pesto Dip from Aldi in my dressings - it is not too oily and has great flavour!
- I used sun-dried tomatoes from a jar which has oil in it as a preservative. If you want to avoid too much oil, you can also get them from the deli section of the grocery store where they are 'fresh' or sold without the oil
Patty K-P says
Sounds like the perfect meal prep dish! I can make a big batch and have for lunch on its own or serve it as a side dish for dinner 😀
Adrianne says
Absolutely right Patty! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Amy | The Cook Report says
This looks so good, I love that it's perfect for meal prep too!
Adrianne says
Thanks Amy! Yes definitely I do that some weeks for work lunches!!