Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad — ❤️🤍💚This EASY quinoa salad is packed with fresh Italian flavors. You can mix and match the ingredients to use up any fresh produce you have on hand! Great for summer potlucks, barbecues, and meal prep!
Table of Contents
Summertime and an abundance of fresh produce is my favorite time of year.
In case you’ll soon be up to your eyeballs in tomatoes from your garden or your eyes are bigger than your stomach as you wander your local farmer’s market and you bring half of it home with you (guilty), this fast, easy, and satisfying quinoa salad will take some tomatoes off your hands.
The simple but flavorful rice wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper dressing adds some tangyiness and zing while staying on the mellower side.
The crisp juicy tomatoes, in contrast with the soft cheese, and the chewy quinoa creates so many textures in every bite.
It’s just a good vegetarian, naturally gluten-free, and satisfying meal that’s easy. Not turning on the oven and keeping things as easy as possible is the name of the game.
Ingredients in This Recipe
This caprese quinoa salad is loaded with garden-fresh ingredients including:
- Cooked quinoa
- Cherry tomatoes
- Mini fresh mozzarella cheese balls
- Fresh basil leaves
- Rice vinegar
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Pinch sugar, optional
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Caprese Quinoa Salad
- Cook the quinoa according to package instructions. (Make sure to rinse the quinoa before cooking it, otherwise it’ll taste slightly bitter!)
- Once the quinoa is cooked, place it in a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.
- Give the quinoa salad a good stir and taste it to see if it needs additional seasoning. I added a healthy amount of salt and a pinch of sugar to my salad to balance the flavors, but you might not need to.
Make-Ahead Tip
This Italian quinoa salad can be served immediately, or you can allow the flavors to marry in the fridge for up to 24 hours before serving. Make-ahead meals are the best, right?
Recipe Variations
Summertime is about being carefree and our meals seem to be much more of the wing-it and whatever-is-around approach. Feel free to mix-and-match the tomato basil salad components based on what you have around.
- Tomatoes: any kind from cherry to diced heirlooms will work
- Mini mozzarella balls: crumbled feta, blue cheese, white cheddar, and almost any other cheese will work
- Quinoa: can be swapped with brown rice or couscous
- Adding extra veggies: Bulk up the salad and clean out your produce drawer in the process by adding diced zucchini, cucumber, yellow summer squash, avocado, bell peppers, carrots, peas, or whatever sounds good
What to Serve with Quinoa Salad
Storage Instructions
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, noting that the basil and tomatoes will soften over time.
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Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa, (start with 1 cup uncooked quinoa, 2 cups water, and cook according to package directions)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes*, (grape tomatoes work too)
- 8 ounces mini fresh mozzarella cheese balls**, (1 cup)
- 15 basil leaves, torn (or to taste)
- 3 to 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
- 1 pinch sugar, optional and to taste
Instructions
- Cook quinoa according to package directions and place cooked quinoa in a large bowl.
- Add all remaining ingredients and toss very well to combine. Taste and see if salad needs more vinegar, salt, etc. and season or tweak accordingly. I found it needed a fairly generous amount of salt and a pinch of sugar to balance the flavors for my taste preferences.
- Salad can be served immediately or transfer to an airtight container, refrigerate, and allow flavors to marry for up to 24 hours before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Caprese Salad Recipes:
Pesto Chicken Caprese Salad — Homemade pesto coats every bite of JUICY chicken, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella in this fun twist on caprese salad!! EASY, ready in 20 minutes, and loaded with rich basil flavor!!
Balsamic Chicken Caprese Salad — Juicy chicken coated in balsamic along with plump tomatoes, creamy mozzarella, and basil!! Easy, healthy, ready in 15 minutes! The caprese salad you’ll make AGAIN and again!!
Caprese Pesto Pasta Salad — Tender pasta, cherry tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella are coated in Parmesan cheese and DELICIOUS pesto sauce!! EASY, ready in 15 minutes, and great for easy meals with planned leftovers or for parties because it feeds a crowd!!
OmG. This looks so good! Going to have this sometime this week with some crab legs! Absolutely LOVE your blog by the way!
Thanks, Samantha!
This looks positively divine!! Your pictures are stunning as always. I can’t wait to dig into this salad! Hope you have a wonderful week Averie :)
Now this is a quinoa salad EXTRAORDINAIRE!!!! Pinned of course!
Thanks my friend, you’re the best :)
This salad looks like everything summer is made of! Definitely in love with the tomato, mozzarella and basil combination, and quinoa is my favourite grain ever! The pictures are also so bright and cheery Averie!
Oh these are definitely my favorite kinds of salads – quinoa and lots of veggies with cheese! Love this! And your photos are stunning. I hope you had a great weekend!
What a wonderful way to give the old tomato mozzarella salad a little twist! And I love that you use rice wine vinegar.
Thanks, Brian! I love rice wine vinegar and vinegary stuff. That tang! Hope you had a great weekend!
Your pictures make this look extra amazing! I’m going to try it this week. You should try this Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Chicken, Raisin, Apple, Quinoa Salad too. Here is the link
https://www.inallofhersplendor.com/2014/03/20/the-goddess-quinoa-salad-recipe/
This looks like the perfect picnic food. So fresh and simple. And so beautiful!
I love coming across recipes that are easy, delicious and pretty! You nailed it!
This is a home run, Averie! Love caprese flavors and quinoa is my obsession! Can’t wait to make this!
I saw this salad on IG this morning and I immediately made a mental note to make it tomorrow! I’ll probably substitute the quinoa for farro because quinoa creeps my husband out (I know, weird right?).
And these photos? Stunning. Seriously stunning, Averie.
Love this salad. The mozzarella is in the “indulgent” part of this meal, balanced out by the fresh and light tomatoes. Love!
I could live off of this salad all summer long, pinned!
What a gorgeous looking salad—for real! Polk a dots galore. I love it. So carefree looking for sure. This salad is gleeful that it’s summer. I can’t wait to make and take this one! Wow.
Hi Averie,
I hope you were able to enjoy the long wknd.
We certainly did because I made 3 of your goodies:
Thick and Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, Mixed berry scones and the Ultimate Fudgy Caramel Brownies. :) It was a sweet wknd here! All were hits.
This salad looks so beautiful. You are a stunning photographer!
What a great summer salad! I always have quinoa and my basil plant is looking good. I’d love to try this and I have a feeling I’ll make it frequently once my tomatoes are ready! Hope you’re having an enjoyable weekend.