This Mango Quinoa Salad is full of bright fresh flavors and interesting textures. It makes a light, delicious vegetarian entrée, and can take the place of more traditional sides like coleslaw or rice pilaf. Served with a delightful piña colada dressing. Inspired by the Arugula Cafe, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Salad Mix
Cook the quinoa: Rinse 1½ cups quinoa thoroughly before cooking it to remove the bitter-tasting saponin that coats the individual seeds.Put quinoa and 3 cups of water into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat and simmer until the quinoa has absorbed all the water.Once the water is all absorbed, remove the pot from heat, cover it and let the quinoa steam for 5 minutes.
Toast the coconut: Place sweetened coconut in a large skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the flakes are mostly golden brown.
Mix the Salad: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except the toasted coconut.Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Serving Options
Fancy - Use a culinary form. While you can buy all sorts of food rings and molds to create the formed quinoa cylinder, a clean tuna tin can with both ends cut out works just as well. Add enough salad to your form to make one portion, and then add the toasted coconut to the top. Use the form lid to push the salad out. If you make your own form with a soup or tuna can, use extreme care around the cut can edges. (Bonus points if you use a smooth-edge can opener.)
Casual Serve the salad on plates or let people serve themselves from a communal salad bowl. Garnish with toasted coconut.
Drizzle salad with Piña Colada Dressing just before serving. Serve with additional dressing on the side.
Video
Notes
It is important to rinse quinoa before cooking it to get rid of the bitter-tasting compound (saponin) that coats the tiny seeds. Saponin leaves a strong, unpleasant taste if it’s left on during cooking.Leftovers stored in an air-tight container will stay good for 3-4 days.***By request, I've included two different dressings on the recipe card. One requires the use of a small amount of piña colada mixer, while the other does not. (For long-time readers, the piña colada mix dressing is the original dressing published with this recipe.)