Zucchini Quinoa Salad with Mint

This zucchini quinoa salad uses fresh mint and is a great way to use fresh zucchini from the garden. Full of crunchy vegetables, cooling mint, creamy feta cheese and a Greek lemon dressing, this quinoa salad is perfect as a summer side dish or healthy lunch.

You might also like this lemon vegetable quinoa salad.

I’ve been redoing a lot of my old recipes and really enjoying them. Last week I redid my cranberry orange breakfast quinoa and had leftover cooked quinoa.

And with my hubby’s yellow zucchini I whipped up this tasty zucchini quinoa salad with fresh mint from my herb garden. What a wonderful way to use homegrown produce!

The quinoa is chewy and filling and when mixed with the veggies, feta and mint you end up a with a colorful and tasty summer meal.

Recipe ingredients I used.

The ingredients I used for this salad are cooked white quinoa, fresh mint, yellow zucchini squash, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red onions, black olives and green peppers.

The Greek lemony dressing is made from extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, garlic, oregano, salt and black pepper.

The combination of flavors of these specific ingredients and dressing make this more of a Greek or Mediterranean salad that I love. 

A note about the vegetables and herbs.

I used these vegetables because I was going for a Greek or Mediterranean salad. However you could also use green olives, sun dried tomatoes, grape tomatoes, asparagus, corn kernels, butternut squash, etc. Whatever you have on hand or prefer.

Also you can substitute fresh basil, cilantro or parsley for the mint if you wish.

How to make quinoa mint salad.

This is a very simple recipe but it will take you some time to chop all of the vegetables. Also it’s assuming you have already cooked quinoa but in case you don’t here’s what you do.

1. If you have already cooked quinoa use that. If not make some by rinsing 1 cup of uncooked quinoa in water using a mesh strainer. Then add it to a pot with 2 cups water and a pinch of salt. Bring it to a boil, cover, lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Let it sit for a few minutes then fluff with a fork. (Note you want to use 2 cups of cooked quinoa and you might have extra.)
2. While that is cooking, chop all of your vegetables into bite sized pieces. Place in a large mixing bowl and set that aside unit the quinoa is done and has cooled.
3. Make the salad dressing by whisking the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, garlic, oregano, salt and black pepper. Set aside.
4. Once the quinoa has cooled to room temperature, mix with the vegetables and dressing. Lastly fold in the feta cheese and refrigerate until ready to eat.
5. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Please scroll down to view and print the recipe card.

What to eat with this healthy salad.

This is a great salad to take to a summer party or picnic. It will go with some many things and especially with anything on the grill.

I have a great marinated chicken breast recipe that would go nice with this or these everything turkey burgers would be good too.

And if you want to make this salad a complete meal you can add cooked chopped chicken breast or shrimp and it would be a delicious dinner salad.

Other quinoa recipes to try.

You can eat cooked quinoa both hot and cold, sweet or savory. I like it especially in salads and pilafs like the ones below. You can use as a substitute for rice or even hot oatmeal. Below of some of my favorite recipes.

• curry vegetable pilaf
• buffalo chicken & quinoa skillet
• holiday pomegranate pilaf
• cranberry orange breakfast cereal

For more creative ways to eat quinoa check out this post.

I hope you enjoyed this zucchini quinoa salad recipe. If you need to use up garden veggies and fresh herbs from your garden this is a great way to to do it.

It’s such a healthy yet tasty salad that filling too so you can eat this for lunch and be satisfied. Enjoy!