🔑 Quick Answer: Quinoa salad with feta is a cold grain salad that layers fluffy quinoa with citrus segments, salty feta, and toasted walnuts. A smoky honey lime vinaigrette pulls it together. The whole thing takes 45 minutes, most of it hands-off while the quinoa cooks and cools, and it holds in the fridge for four days.
This quinoa salad with feta has quickly become a favorite around these parts. It is healthy, loaded with whole foods, and it can play any role from main to side dish, and it is a nice, light dish you can make all fall and winter long.
This walnut quinoa feta salad is inspired by a recent trip to California Wine Country for Cherry Bombe Jubilee. While attending the alfresco lunch at the lovely Auberge Solage Hotel event, I tried a similar recipe and instantly wanted to make it myself.
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I’m Aida Mollenkamp, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef with nearly twenty years as a professional recipe developer and more than 1,500 original recipes. I have developed recipes for brands including California Grown, KitchenAid, and Lucini Olive Oil, and I test every recipe on this site three to five times before publishing.
As a Californian born and raised in California, a longtime recipe developer, and someone with celiac disease, I built this one to fix a specific problem. I have seen a lot of quinoa salads over the years, and most of them fail in the same three ways: overcooked quinoa, too much dressing, or not enough flavor to carry either. This version dresses the quinoa on its own first so it absorbs rather than drowns, and it leans on toasted walnuts for the sweetness and crunch that a salad like this needs.
So, I decided to remedy that with this version of the walnut quinoa feta salad for my friends at California Walnuts. Toasting the walnuts gives them maximum sweetness, nutty flavor, and crunch, which is what a salad like this needs.
Best for: anyone meal-prepping for the week, or taking a dish to a potluck or a holiday table where it has to sit out and still look good an hour later.
Why You’ll Love This Walnut Quinoa Feta Salad
The smoky honey-lime dressing brightens everything while the combination of crunchy walnuts, sweet dates, pickled onions, and salty feta means it’s loaded with flavor.
The quinoa feta salad is refreshing, packed with textures, and easy to prepare ahead of time. Whether you’re meal prepping for the week, hosting a holiday party, or headed to a potluck its citrusy, nutty, and savory flavors make it ideal for any occasion.
Recipe Ingredients
This quinoa feta salad is made with a base of cooked quinoa (a great way to get rid of leftover quinoa, btw) that is layered with juicy seasonal citrus, sweet Medjool dates, crunchy Persian cucumbers, and toasted California walnuts.
The crumbled feta adds a creamy, tangy finish, while the quick pickled onions (that we also enjoy on these deviled eggs, by the way) and a smoky honey-lime dressing tie all the flavors together.
Honey Lime Vinaigrette
The Smoky Honey Lime Vinaigrette can be made up to 4 days ahead of time – keep it refrigerated in an airtight container. This smoky honey-lime dressing nods to the salad dressing at Chipotle (though not an exact copy) and works well on this quinoa salad with feta, as well as on a kale and mango salad or in this hearty grain salad.
- Extra virgin olive oil – Adds richness and ties the flavors together.
- Freshly squeezed lime juice – Provides a bright, zesty tang.
- Honey or maple syrup – Balances the tartness with a hint of sweetness.
- Smoked paprika – Adds a subtle smokiness to the dressing.
- Dried oregano or dried thyme – Brings an earthy, herbaceous flavor.
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper – Enhances all the flavors.
Quick Pickled Onions
Are these quick-pickled onions essential to this quinoa salad with feta? I think so! They bring a bright note to the dish that works really well with the walnuts and the salty cheese. And because they are pickled, they don’t have the harshness of raw onion.
- Rice vinegar or white wine vinegar – The acidic base for pickling the onions.
- Granulated sugar – Adds sweetness to balance the acidity.
- Kosher salt – Enhances the pickling solution.
- Pinch of peppercorns – Adds a mild peppery note.
- Red onion – Provides a sharp, tangy crunch and vibrant color.
Walnut Quinoa Feta Salad
This quinoa salad with feta is a riff on the salad the chefs made at the event (they included mint and microgreens; they didn’t have cucumber, dates, or feta), but you can adapt it to what you have on hand!
- Quinoa – The protein-packed base of the salad
- Oranges – Adds bursts of citrusy sweetness. Use whatever sort of oranges or mandarins you like best, from Cara Cara to blood oranges or satsumas. Here, we supreme the oranges because we like the texture and how it brings out the citrus’s jewel colors. However, you can simply peel them if you prefer.
- Medjool Dates – Bring a natural caramel-like sweetness to the mix.
- Persian Cucumbers – Add a refreshing, crisp texture.
- Toasted California walnuts – Offer nutty crunch and richness. Keep them in halves or whole for a big bite.
- Feta Cheese – Delivers a creamy, tangy finishing touch.
How to Make This Recipe
Four things decide whether this quinoa salad with feta is good or forgettable.
- Cook the quinoa in well-salted water and then spread it on a sheet pan to cool. Cooling it in the pot makes a dense, gummy block.
- Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for six to eight minutes until they smell nutty, and pull them the moment you can smell them from across the kitchen.
- Supreme the citrus rather than slicing it, so no membrane ends up in the bowl. It takes four minutes, and it changes the texture of every bite.
- Add the feta last and fold it gently, because stirring it through warm quinoa turns it into a paste instead of keeping it in distinct salty pockets.
Variations
This quinoa salad with feta has a grain, citrus, something salty, and something crunchy, so the swaps are wide open.
- Swap the grain. Farro or wheat berries both work if you are not eating gluten-free, and they give you a chewier salad.
- Swap the cheese. Ricotta salata is drier and saltier, and goat cheese goes creamy in a way some people love.
- Swap the citrus. Grapefruit is sharper than blood orange, and it holds up better in summer when the good oranges are gone.
- Make it a main. Add shredded chicken or chickpeas, and it becomes lunch rather than a side.
- Make it vegan. Skip the feta, use maple syrup instead of honey in the dressing, and add an extra half cup of walnuts for the richness you lose.
Storage and Make Ahead
Dressed, this quinoa salad with feta keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for four days, and it is genuinely good on day two once the quinoa has taken on the dressing. The walnuts soften over time, so hold back a handful and add them when you serve. The smoky honey lime vinaigrette and the quick pickled onions both keep for four days on their own, which makes this a Sunday job you eat all week.
Wine To Serve With This Quinoa Salad With Feta
Vermentino works well with this quinoa salad with feta because its salinity meets the feta head-on instead of fighting it, and its citrus pith echoes the segmented oranges. Serve it cold enough that the walnut tannin reads as texture rather than grip. For more intel on what wine to serve with this or any other recipe, check out our wine and food pairing tips.
What to Serve With This
Serve this quinoa salad with feta alongside grilled chicken or roasted salmon or as part of a Mediterranean-inspired spread with hummus and pita. It’s also delicious as a standalone meal for a light lunch or dinner.
Frequently Asked Questions
You want acid and a little sweetness, because feta is salty enough to flatten anything shy. The smoky honey-lime vinaigrette does both, and the smoked paprika gives it enough backbone to stand up to the walnuts. A plain lemon vinaigrette works too, though you will miss the depth.
Yes, and it's even better that way. Make the quinoa, dressing, and pickled onions up to four days ahead, and keep them separate. Assemble the salad the day you serve it, and hold the walnuts back until the last minute so they stay crunchy.
I cook it the same way I cook pasta: bring a pot of salted water to a boil, then add in the quinoa. Just make sure you rinse the quinoa first, or it will get soapy. And lower the heat so it is cooking at a simmer and not a boil once you stir in the quinoa. Pull it off the heat as soon as the grains show their little tails, usually around 10 to 15 minutes. Then spread it on a sheet pan to cool instead of leaving it in the pot, because trapped steam is what turns quinoa into porridge.
Other Walnut Recipes You’ll Love
I love adding toasted California walnuts to a load of recipes for a bit of flavor and crunch. Here are a few additional walnut recipes where they really shine:
California Road Trip Travel Guide
Thinking about making this quinoa feta salad and taking a road trip in the Golden State? You’ll want to check out our California Road Trip Travel Guide for travel tips, itinerary ideas, and more California-inspired recipes.
Citrus Walnut Quinoa Feta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For Make The Quick-Pickled Onions:
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar or lime juice
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch black peppercorns
- 1/2 medium red onion minced
For The Walnut Quinoa Feta Salad:
- 1 recipe Smoky Honey Lime Vinaigrette
- 4 cups cooked quinoa
- 3 medium oranges (mix of blood, navel, and Cara Cara) supremed and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 6 Medjool dates pitted and chopped
- 5 Persian cucumbers finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups toasted walnuts (about 6 ounces), broken up
- 4 ounces Feta cheese minced
- kosher salt and Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Make The Quick-Pickled Onions:
- Place everything except the onions in a small saucepan and warm up over medium heat. Stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved, remove from heat. Strain out the peppercorns then pour into a heatproof bowl, and stir in the onions. Set aside for at least 30 minutes or until the onions turn bright pink. (Pickled onions can be made up to 2 days ahead of time. Store refrigerated in an airtight container (in the pickling liquid) until ready to use.)
Make The Walnut Quinoa Feta Salad:
- Toss the cooked quinoa with 2/3 of the dressing and taste, adding more salt, pepper, or dressing as desired. Mix the quinoa with everything reserving a handful of each pickled onions, walnuts, cheese, and oranges for garnish. Place the quinoa on a serving platter scatter the reserved ingredients on top. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper, and serve.(The salad can be made ahead but we like it best when served just after being served. Also, resist the urge to add all the dressing. If you let it sit a few minutes, usually two-thirds of the dressing is more than enough.)
