Apple Walnut Quinoa Salad
Updated September 04, 2024
Quick Summary
Quinoa Apple Salad- this hearty salad is made with quinoa, spinach, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and a simple maple mustard dressing. It’s the perfect salad for fall. Serve as a side dish or enjoy as a light lunch or dinner.
Apple season is one of my favorite seasons. I love apple picking and cooking and baking with apples. A few of my favorite apple recipes include: apple crisp, applesauce, apple bundt cake, and apple cobbler.
I also love using apples to make this hearty and healthy Apple Quinoa Salad. The flavors scream fall! The salad is made with nutty quinoa, fresh spinach, crisp apples, crunchy walnuts, creamy goat cheese, and sweet dried cranberries. The salad is tossed in a simple maple mustard dressing that is tangy and sweet!
This salad is perfect for a light lunch or as a side dish for dinner. I love making during the fall months when apples are in season, but it is good year-round. I also love making it for Thanksgiving. It always gets rave reviews from family and friends.
Ingredients
This easy salad recipe has all of my favorite ingredients:
- Spinach
- Quinoa
- Apples
- Walnuts
- Dried cranberries
- Goat cheese
The quinoa salad is finished with a maple mustard dressing that pulls all of the fall flavors together. Don’t skip the dressing, I promise it is easy to make. You can whisk it up in just a few minutes.
How to Make Apple Quinoa Salad
- First, make the maple mustard dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the spinach, cooked quinoa, apples, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and walnuts. Toss until salad is combined. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste.
- Drizzle with dressing and toss again. Serve and enjoy!
Salad Variations
- Greens– instead of spinach use kale, arugula, or mixed greens.
- Grains– if you don’t care for quinoa, you can use farro, couscous, or orzo.
- Nuts– instead of walnuts use pecans, candied pecans, or almonds.
- Cheese– use feta cheese or white cheddar instead of goat cheese.
- Dried Fruit– currants, dried cherries, or golden raisins would also work nicely in this salad.
- Protein– add chicken, chickpeas, or white beans for a boost of protein.
More Fall Salad Recipes
- Simple Kale Salad
- Easy Spinach Salad
- Apple Pecan Salad with Creamy Lemon Dressing
- Favorite Pear Salad
- Beet Salad
Check out more SALAD RECIPES!
Apple Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
For the maple mustard dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
For the quinoa salad:
- 3 cups fresh spinach leaves
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups chopped apples (Honeycrisp, Gala, or Fuji are my favorite)
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese (can use feta cheese)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- First, make the maple mustard dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the spinach, cooked quinoa, apples, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and walnuts. Toss until salad is combined. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste.
- Drizzle with dressing and toss again. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
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I made this for lunch and it’s incredible! I’m trying to eat healthier and this is the perfect delicious and filling salad for the fall.
One of my favorite fall lunches! Glad you loved it too!
Could I swap romaine for spinach? Will it still be as good?
Yes! You can use any lettuce or greens!
This is a regular in our household. So good any time of year!
I made this yesterday and I believe it is my new favorite!! It is absolutely delicious, just yummy!
Do you usually toast the walnuts before adding to salad or just leave as is? Thanks..
You can do either, whatever you prefer. I think toasting them brings out a nice flavor.
What’s a good substitute for quinoa? My stomach does not like it.
Farro, couscous, or orzo!
Love this salad!!
I made this recipe using blue cheese crumbles because that seems to be what my husband comes home with whenever I have feta on the shopping list. I also substituted blueberries for the cranberries because that’s what I had on hand. All very good. Basically any combination of sweet autumnal fruits will work well in this recipe. It’s the lovely maple dressing that carries the day.
This is THE BEST salad. I used mixed greens because that’s what I had on hand. Sooooo yummy!
Used feta because our grocery was out of goat cheese, but it was still so good! My 7 year old asked to try it and ate a whole bowl – her first time eating raw spinach!
This is wonderful!
Absolutely delicious! Even left over!
I just tried this even the dressing tried to modified it to a lower fat and sugar content but still turned out really good and very healthy too. Thank you for this recipe. I just want to suggest to please include the nutrition facts of your recipe
With everyone’s modifications, it’s probably better for people to enter their own food for nutritional information.
A great recipe to try if you like quinoa bowls. I loved it!
I wish I could rate this 10 stars!! SO. GOOD!! I had some kale to use up and no spinach, so kale it was! This truly a new favorite. Thank you.
I really love this salad, its tastes amazing and is a meal on its own ❤
LOVED! Super easy, great to make ahead of time and delicious, bright flavors with lots of color and pizazz.
So delicious!
This salad is delicious! I used mixed greens instead of spinach. I brought it to a picnic at the beach and everyone loved it; I even got asked for the recipe. This salad is so easy to make, with ingredients I always have on hand. I will be making it again and again.
Yay! We make it all of the time too!
This salad is wonderful. So much good flavor. I take it to parties and everyone loves it. I use feta
cheese because most people love that.
Thanks for a great recipe.
I did not wait til fall to make it.
LOL
You are welcome.
I made this tonight and it was amazing!
Yay!
The dressing is fabulous! Added dried apricots and blue cheese crumbles bc it’s all I had on hand. Definitely a keeper.
YUM!
Love, love, love this recipe. It comes together very quickly and the dressing is sooo good. I have also added rotisserie chicken to it.
Nice! Glad you love it.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes! You can make the dressing and quinoa ahead of time and keep them in the fridge for 4 days. Assemble the salad when you are ready!
Delicious!! Our first time cooking quinoa and we may need to work on perfecting that a bit but everything comes together perfectly in this recipe.
I love this hearty salad. Glad you loved it too!
Husband and I are obsessed with this salad. It’s also become our go-to salad when hosting.
It’s so good!
I love the combination of this salad. Thanks for sharing. Is there any chance you know the nutrition/calorie count without the dressing?
I have made this a couple times and it has been a big hit! The combination of ingredients is so good.
Thank you for reporting back!
What substitution would you suggest for the apples? My husband is allergic to them. I want to try it and don’t want to leave out that ingredient.
Peaches or pears!
The salad sounds wonderful, is it warm because the quinoa is just cooked or can it be served cold? I was just a little confused about that, thank you so much.
It is good both ways!