Quinoa Spring Roll Salad

At a glance

What stands out: Vibrant, colorful, and fresh, this quinoa spring roll salad has all the flavor and crisp texture of spring roll filling, without the fuss of rolling! A creamy peanut dressing brings it all together for the reliable light side dish or meal prep lunch.

How long it takes: 45 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: saucepan, mixing bowl, small bowl, whisk
Servings: 8

Reliable for Meal Prep!

This spring roll salad is for anyone who loves fresh, crunchy spring rolls…but absolutely does not love working with rice paper. (If you know, you know.)

It takes everything good about a spring roll, crisp veggies, bright flavors, satisfying textures, and turns it into a straightforward, filling salad. It’s reliable for meal prep because it keeps well in the fridge, and it goes great with soy glazed salmon!

What makes it special:

• Wholesome and filling. Quinoa adds protein to this spring roll salad to keep you satisfied. There are lots of crisp veggies which bring so much flavor, vibrant colors, and loads of nutrition.
• No rice paper! Rice paper can be a pain in the you-know-what (the soaking, the rolling, the inevitable tearing!). This recipe skips the wrapper in favor of the filling. And that’s a standby part anyway!
• Customizable. Swap in different veggies, add a protein, swap the quinoa for jasmine rice or Instant Pot brown rice, or try a different dressing. It’s hard to go wrong!

What goes in

This spring roll salad has 3 components. Here’s a break down of each:

• Quinoa: You’ll need white or tri-color quinoa, water to cook it in, and kosher salt for seasoning.
• Peanut dressing: Peanut butter is the base of this dressing; we recommend creamy, not chunky (you can also use sunflower seed butter!). To this, we add soy sauce (or tamari for a gluten-free version), fresh lime juice, honey, and sriracha. You’ll thin it out with water to make it pourable.
• Salad: The salad consists of sliced red cabbage, carrots, red bell pepper (orange or yellow would also work!), cucumber, green onion, cilantro, and roasted peanuts for crunch.

How it comes together

Cook the quinoa. Put the quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and rinse it until the water runs clear. Then, add the quinoa, water, and salt to a saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and cool. (we transfer the quinoa to a large, shallow bowl to expedite the cooling process.)

Make the dressing. Whisk all of the ingredients in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup. The first time we tested this salad recipe, the appearance of the dressing looked grainy but we found that it smooths out as it sits for a few minutes.

Assemble the salad. Toss the shredded red cabbage and carrots, chopped bell pepper, julienned cucumber, green onion, and cilantro with the cooled quinoa.

Dress and serve. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss again, ensuring that every bit is coated with the peanutty goodness. Add the peanuts as a garnish, and serve at room temperature or chilled.

Ways to change it

• Make it nut-free. Since our family has nut allergies, we wanted to try a nut-free version. We found that sunflower seed butter can be substituted for the peanut butter, and the salad turns out evenly. You can either omit the peanuts, or swap in toasted sunflower seeds, pepitas, or sesame seeds.
• Switch up the veggies. You could use regular green cabbage in place of the red cabbage. Try thinly sliced radishes, edamame, snow peas, or jicama—just keep the total at about 4 cups. For a little sweetness, try adding pineapple chunks or diced mango.
• Add sesame flavor. Add a few drops of toasted sesame oil to the dressing or try replacing half the peanut butter with tahini.

Make It a Meal

• Chicken. This quinoa spring roll salad would be awesome with Asian marinated chicken or grilled teriyaki chicken on the side, or even on top of the salad. We like to serve it with baked spicy Asian chicken wings, too!
• Seafood. Bang bang salmon and kung pao shrimp will bring a little heat to your meal! Spicy garlic shrimp is good, too. If you lean more toward salmon, try teriyaki salmon or orange-glazed salmon.
• Plant-based proteins. We love this baked sesame tofu but you can’t go wrong with all purpose baked tofu or crispy air fryer tofu, either.

Keeping leftovers

You can store this quinoa spring roll salad in an airtight container for up to 4 days. If you’re making it for meal prep, we recommend storing the dressing separately; the quinoa will absorb the dressing during storage, so it’s best added just before serving.

• Yield: 8
• Prep: 30 minutes
• Cook: 15 minutes
• Total: 45 minutes

Ingredients

For quinoa:

• ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
• 1½ cups water
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

For dressing:

• ¼ cup creamy peanut butter (or sunflower seed butter)
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon sriracha

For salad:

• 1 cup shredded, or very thinly sliced red cabbage ( ¼ of a small head)
• 1 cup shredded carrot ( 2 medium carrots)
• 1 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper ( 1 medium pepper)
• 1 cup julienned cucumber ( ½ English cucumber)
• ½ cup thinly sliced green onion (from 1 bunch)
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• ¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts (for topping)

Method

1. Rinse quinoa with cool running water, drain well. Combine quinoa, water, and ¼ teaspoon salt in a saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes. Remove pan from heat, fluff quinoa with a fork, then cool to room temperature. It will cool faster if you transfer it to a shallow bowl.
2. To make dressing, in a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, water, honey, and sriracha until smooth. The dressing may appear slightly grainy at first but it will smooth out.
3. In a large bowl combine shredded cabbage, carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, green onion, cilantro, and cooked quinoa. Toss lightly until combined.
4. Whisk dressing again, then pour it over the salad; toss thoroughly.
5. Sprinkle with peanuts and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Notes

Possible variations: If desired, substitute different vegetables such as shelled edamame, thinly sliced radishes, thinly sliced snow peas, jicama, and so on, as long as you keep the total amount of vegetables to 4 cups. You could substitute green cabbage for the red.

Nut-free: If you have nut allergies, sunflower butter is a good alternative to peanut butter. We tested the recipe using SunButter and it turned out well. Instead of peanuts, add toasted sunflower seeds.

Sesame: if you’re a fan of toasted sesame, add a few drops to the dressing. The salad could be garnished with sesame seeds, as well.

Make it a meal: To make this a main course salad, add spicy garlic shrimp or crispy air fryer tofu. Refer to the post above for several more recipe links.

Storage: Leftover salad can be refrigerated for up to 4 days. If you’re making the salad ahead, store the dressing separately, and mix it in right before serving.