Roasted Pumpkin and Quinoa Salad

This roasted pumpkin and quinoa salad is a crowd pleaser and a fantastic source of plant-based nutrients. It’s delicious, nutritious and can be served as a side dish or enjoyed as an entrée.

Why You Should be Putting Pumpkin in Your Salad

Have you ever tried pumpkin in a salad?

Many people associate them with sweet recipes, but pumpkins have an absolutely craveable savory side that tends to fly under the radar during pumpkin spice season.

Pumpkins are naturally rather mild in flavor, making them the perfect canvas to merge with a wide variety of spices and seasonings.

This roasted pumpkin and quinoa salad is the ultimate flavor combination, tastefully weaving together sweet, sharp and salty components into each craveable bite.

I’ve made this particular quinoa roasted pumpkin salad on numerous occasions for holiday dinner parties and family get togethers in the fall.

It’s always a hit and I got asked for the recipe enough that I decided to add it to the blog.

This pumpkin salad is not only festive for the fall and winter recipe scene, it’s also a great way to give yourself a healthy option at holiday gatherings.

I like to bring a salad to most any get-together or social gathering just to give myself a constructive option. That way, I can start off with a bowl of salad to help fill me up a little and have a little more self-control as I enjoy all of the other great foods and dishes.

What Makes This Pumpkin Salad Healthy

Not only are the delicious, but pumpkins actually also an extremely nutrient-dense food. Just one cup of pumpkin contains 245% of your daily vitamin A needs! Vitamin A in particular plays an important role in your eyesight, skin and immune system health.

They’re also packed with others vitamins (like C and E), minerals (like iron and folate) and many disease-fighting antioxidants. The nutrients pumpkins provide is fabulous for your skin, immune system and digestive health. That’s a lot of reasons to work pumpkin into your diet!

This salad also features quinoa. Quinoa is an highly nutrient-dense gluten-free grain.

It’s one of the few plant-based proteins to contain all nine essential amino acids, as well as an excellent dose of vitamins (particularly vitamins B and E), minerals (like magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium and phosphorus), fiber and antioxidants.

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Recipe for Roasted Pumpkin and Quinoa Salad

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Cups of kale, finely chopped (I’m talkin’ chop that stuff and until you can chop no more or find a prechopped kale salad mix at the store )
• 2 Cups pumpkin cubes (about 2 small pie pumpkins worth)
• 1/4 Cup low-sugar crasins
• 1/4 Cup chopped walnuts (see substitutions list below)
• 1/4 Cup blue cheese, crumbled
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper
• Coconut oil cooking spray
• 1/3 Cup high quality quinoa
• 2/3 Cups bone broth (see substitutions list below)
• 1 Low-sodium chicken bullion cube (see substitutions list below)
• Your favorite light vinaigrette dressing

Making Pumpkin Cubes:

First, let’s make your pumpkin cubes. Using two small pie pumpkins, scoop out all the seeds/guts inside and use a peeler to remove the pumpkin skin. They chop the pumpkins up into small, evenly sized cubes.

Measure out 2 cups worth of cubes. (If there’s more than 2 cups, don’t stress, you can go ahead and add that in too -a little extra pumpkin won’t hurt anything!)

Place your pumpkin cubes on a baking tray and lightly drizzle with coconut oil, followed by an even dusting of garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake at 350°F  for 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of your cubes), or until golden brown.

Cooking the Quinoa:

You can watch my full video tutorial on how to cook quinoa below.

Very thoroughly rinse your quinoa to remove it’s natural coating of saponin (otherwise, under rinsed quinoa can taste bitter). The best way to do this is using a quality nut milk bag (it’s super cheap and very versatile in the kitchen; I also use it to make homemade almond milk)

Combine quinoa, bone broth and bullion cube in a pot and bring to a boil over the stove. Lower the heat and cover with a lid, letting it cook another 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed and quinoa is light and fluffy. Remove from heat.

Assembling the Salad:

In a serving dish, layer the ingredients in the following order: Kale, quinoa, pumpkin, craisins, walnuts, blue cheese. Drizzle with your light vinaigrette dressing of choice and enjoy!

This recipe makes about 4 heaping full entrée servings (more servings as a side dish, depending on your serving size).

You can upgrade it from a side dish to a full entrée by adding in 1/2 a cup (per serving) of your favorite lean protein.

Tips For Serving

If you are making this for a dinner party, hold off on adding the cheese and the walnuts until the last minute before serving. Also, consider just setting the cheese in a little side dish to give folks the option of adding it themselves (especially since blue cheese has a stronger flavor.

Video Tutorial: How to Cook Quinoa

Substitutions and Macronutrients

SUBSTITUTIONS:

• Not feeling the kale? Swap it for spinach or romaine lettuce.
• You can substitute almonds, cashews, or pecans in for the walnuts or ditch them altogether to go nut-free!
• You can switch out the blue cheese with feta cheese, or a vegan cheese substitute.
• You can substitute vegetable broth in place of the bone broth for a vegan/vegetarian diet.
• Add in 4 ounces (per serving) of your favorite lean protein to bump up the protein content.
• When making substitutions, just keep in mind that your macro count may slightly vary from this specific recipe. If you’re counting macros, just make sure to adjust the recipe macros in a macro calculator based on the ingredients you use.

MACROS (without dressing): 

• Calories: 268
• Carbs: 32.8g
• Fat: 13.2g
• Protein: 12.5g
• Weight Watcher’s points: 9

Final Thoughts on the Roasted Pumpkin Salad

This roasted pumpkin and quinoa salad has become one of my favorite seasonal salads. It’s also one of my tried and true salad recipes for fall parties and gatherings (because it turns out people really think you’re creative for doing something with a pumpkin that isn’t a dessert).

If you’re looking for even more great seasonal recipes, be sure to check out some more of the ones below!

Related Salad Recipes:

• 3 Healthy Holiday Salads
• Kale and Squash Super Salad

Related Pumpkin Recipes:

• Savory Southwest Pumpkin Soup
• Kodiak Pumpkin Protein Muffins
• Pumpkin Smoothie Recipe
• 4 Pumpkin Recipes for Holiday Meal Prepping

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All writing and images copyright © 2020 Rachel Elise Weems Woods