California Quinoa Mango Salad

Last week I had one of the best summer salads ever – okay so I know I say that about a lot of great recipes – but this one was really amazing. It was the Health Starts Here California Quinoa salad from Whole Foods deli. The HSH deli items at Whole Foods have no added salt, oil or sugar. This salad was the prefect balance of fabulous ingredients starting with protein packed quinoa, including tropical flavors like mango and shredded coconut then studded with sweet dried currants, edamame, red onion, sweet red bell peppers, fresh cilantro and fresh lime juice. Are you drooling yet? The only thing I could do was to try and create it using the list of ingredients on the box. Guess what? My version was a huge success, in fact I liked it even better than the Whole Foods version! If you don’t have any mango use pineapple. This recipe makes a huge amount which is great for taking to a picnic or potluck. If you are making it for a smaller group feel free to cut the recipe in half. It’s the best combination of ingredients and so healthy! Eat it alone as a entree salad served over a bed of baby greens. Perfect as a side dish to a veggie burger or a cup of soup. Hubby Tom and I have been enjoying this salad and it’s going on the menu again soon. See the bottom of the recipe for ideas on how to make this compliant for Chef AJ’s Ultimate Weight Loss program.

For a fun presentation you can serve the salad in a lettuce leaf. Shown here is the version with fresh pineapple, jicama, red grapes and black beans. Scrumptious!

California Quinoa Mango Salad

Tami Kramer Nutmeg Notebook

This is my version of a popular salad sold in the deli at Whole Food Market. It is perfect for potluck, entertaining or to batch prep and eat all week! Try putting some on your chopped salad – so refreshing. People always ask me for the recipe.

5 from 7 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Servings 14 cups

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups Tri colored Quinoa rinsed and drained or any color of quinoa
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups Organic Shelled Edamame Cooked according to pkg directions, cooled
• 1 red bell pepper finely diced
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup dried currants – can sub raisins or dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
• 1 cup red onion finely diced
• juice of two limes and the zest
• 4 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups mango diced or pineapple or peaches

Instructions

 

• In your pressure cooker add the 2 cups quinoa and 2 1/2 cups water. Put the lid on, set the cook time for 5 minutes, natural pressure.

  If you are in a hurry to cool down the quinoa and get the salad made, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat and spread the hot quinoa out on it and put it in the fridge and it will cool down fairly quickly.
• Once the quinoa has cooled down transfer it to a large mixing bowl and combine with rest of ingredients. Chill before serving.

Notes

To make this recipe compliant to Chef AJ’s Ultimate Weight Loss Program – sub rinsed and drained black beans for the edamame, sub diced jicama for the almonds, leave out the coconut, sub grapes  cut in half or pomegranate seeds for the currants.

 If you don’t have an electric pressure cooker -In a medium size sauce pan mix 4 cups water and quinoa, over a medium heat bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 10-15 minutes or until all water has been absorbed. Set aside to cool. 

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Get Healthy – Stay Healthy – One Meal At A Time

When you purchase items through my affiliate links you help support the work here on Nutmeg Notebook without any additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Be sure to check out our Amazon Affiliate Page where we share many of our favorite small kitchen appliances, kitchen tools, food products, books and fun things for the grandchildren! Thank you for your support!

We are pleased to announce that if you live in Canda we now have an Amazon.CA Shop Page. We have matched up as many items as we can from our US shop page. Ocassionally there are differences in brands and or packaging size.

The full address is Amazon.ca/shop/nutmegnotebook

We are also Holland Bowl Mill Affiliates. The 15 inch Holland Bowl Mill Cherry fruit bowl has a permanent home on our kitchen island. It’s beautiful and useful. The heart shaped bowl makes me happy – I love everything heart shaped! We use our 15 inch Beechwood bowl to chop our salads everyday. Eating a salad for one meal every day helped me lose weight and become a size 4. I still eat a salad for one meal a day but now it’s a Big Beautiful Chopped salad and it helps me stay a size 4! See the Chopped Salad Blog Post to find out how you can incorporate a chopped salad into your daily food plan and how you can get a free mezzaluna knife with your Holland Bowl order when you use our affiliate link as well as free engraving and free shipping.