Tomato Mozzarella Salad with Basil and Quinoa

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!

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

1. Cook the quinoa according to package instructions. (Make sure to rinse the quinoa before cooking it, otherwise it’ll taste slightly bitter!)
2. Once the quinoa is cooked, place it in a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients.
3. 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. 

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

Caprese Stuffed Chicken

Sheet Pan Balsamic Salmon and Vegetables

Grilled Lemon Chicken

Salmon Florentine

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4.73 from 37 votes

Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad

By Averie Sunshine

❤️🤍💚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!

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

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Ingredients  

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• ▢ 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

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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

*Tomatoes can be substituted with any variety diced tomatoes.

**Mozzarella can be substituted with crumbled feta, blue cheese, or your favorite cheese.

Storage: Salad will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days, noting that vegetables will release water as time passes.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 401kcal, Carbohydrates: 28g, Protein: 17g, Fat: 25g, Saturated Fat: 9g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 14g, Cholesterol: 45mg, Sodium: 760mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 7g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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