This vegetarian southwest quinoa salad is super simple and delicious. Mexican spiced quinoa with veggies, cotija cheese, and a spicy avocado dressing. YUM!
Hi, Rhubarbarians! Are you ready for some Mexican spiced quinoa, all the awesome veggies, salty cheese, and the most amazing avocado sauce of your life?
A quinoa salad with southwest flavors
We love this one! The quinoa is heavily spiced with Southwest inspired flavors and the dressing is a blend of spicy green chiles, avocado, cilantro, and sour cream. Oh yes.
We made this quinoa super flavorful by cooking the quinoa with toasted spices, so it absorbs the flavor of the spices while it cooks.
The veggies are kept fresh and crunchy, and then everything gets tossed with the dressing. YUM!
Have you tried our protein-packed grapefruit quinoa salad?
Like a vegetarian taco bowl
This is really one awesome salad. That's not red quinoa up there! That's white quinoa cooked in Southwest spices. Red New Mexico chile powder and cumin create a super spiced protein in the quinoa. We were trying to mimic that heavily spiced ground taco beef that's normally in taco salads, but you know, vegetarian.
Quinoa taco meat. It works.
This quinoa, although too heavily spiced on it's own, totally rocks mixed with all the other goodness going on.
This sour cream enchilada sauce or creamy cilantro sauce would be so tasty on this salad!
The spicy avocado dressing
The star of the show here really is the dressing. It's gotta have green chiles to be a true Southwest salad, so we blended those with avocado, sour cream, and lime juice. You just blend it all together, thin with some water, season to taste with salt and pepper. Quick, easy, delicious.
Have you tried these veggie enchiladas with sour cream sauce yet?
How to make it
- Get your quinoa going: Toast the spices in a saucepan and then add the water and quinoa. Stir together, bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until nice and fluffy.
- Make the dressing: You're going to want a food processor or blender for this. All you do is add your ingredients and puree until smooth. Season to taste with some s&p. MAGIC.
- Toss it all together with the veggies.
- Enjoy.
Give this 20-minute pumpkin quesadilla recipe a try. It's super delicious!
Southwest quinoa salad recipe
Recipe
Southwest quinoa salad with avocado dressing
Ingredients
FOR THE QUINOA
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon New Mexico chile powder or other chile powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup dry quinoa
FOR THE AVOCADO DRESSING
- 1 large avocado, pitted and peeled
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 2 tablespoon canned green chiles
- 2 medium limes, juiced
- ⅓ cup water
- salt and pepper
FOR THE SALAD
- 2 ears corn, kernels removed from the cob
- ½ can black beans, rinsed and patted dry
- 1 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped
- ½ cop chopped green onion
- ½ cup crumbled cotija cheese
- 1 large handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 4 slices fresh lime for serving (optional)
Instructions
FOR THE QUINOA
- In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the 1 tablespoon chile powder and ½ teaspoon cumin, and toast until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup water and the ½ cup of dry quinoa. Stir and increase heat to high. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
FOR THE AVOCADO DRESSING
- Meanwhile, combine the avocado, 1 tablespoon of sour cream, 2 tablespoon of green chiles, the lime juice from both limes, and ⅓ cup water in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste and blend in.
FOR THE SALAD
- In a large serving bowl, combine quinoa, corn, beans, bell pepper, green onion, cheese, cilantro, and tomatoes. Toss with dressing and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with lime slices to squeeze onto salad. (optional)
Nutrition
Try out one of these ten vegetarian taco recipes next!
If you make this recipe, please let me know on social media or in the comments below! Leave a star rating in your comment or tag me on Instagram with #Rhubarbarians.
Thank you so much for reading and supporting Rhubarbarians and the brands that I recommend. If you’re looking for a group of people cooking vegetarian recipes through the seasons, join us on Facebook in our vegetarian and vegan recipes group!
Hope you enjoy this veggie loaded salad! 
Trish
LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? GET FREE WEEKLY RECIPES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX! SIGN UP HERE!
amindfullmom
That dressing! Dang Girl!!
Patricia Bozeman
Thank you! 🙂
heathersfp
what gorgeous salad! pretty sure I could eat this for lunch daily and never get bored with it
Wandercooks
Ohhhh heeeeyyy theeerrrrre gorgeous salad bowl. Don't you look super fine! You're everything I need in my life, and I'll be seeing you real soon 😉 Also, oh my god yum! How delicious does that quinoa sound?! Thanks so much for this delicious inspo.
Patricia Bozeman
Ha! Thanks so much! Let me know what you think of the recipe!
Ann from Sumptuous Spoonfuls
I love how you spiced up the quinoa! Great idea.
Patricia Bozeman
Thanks so much Ann!
Erin @ Platings and Pairings
This is a beautiful salad Trish - That dressing!!! I hope your speech went great and that you had a lovely weekend!
Patricia Bozeman
Thanks Erin! The weekend was awesome! Up at Cama Beach on Camano Island.
Liz @ I Heart Vegetables
I'll try anything with avocado on it! 😉 This looks delicious! I love the addition of quinoa, so the salad has some extra staying power 🙂 I'm definitely trying this!
Patricia Bozeman
Thanks Liz! Let me know what you think!
michelle @ Boards&Knives
Such a pretty salad! I love salads with lots of different flavors, colors and textures. Hope your speech went well – you're so courageous! I could never speak in front of a big crowd (maybe that's why I'm a blogger, ha!).
Patricia Bozeman
ha! Thanks Michelle! The speech went well! Cut it short so I didn't cry my eyes out. 🙂