Summer quinoa salad combines the best of summer produce in an easy, nutritious, and produce-filled salad! If you’re after healthy quinoa salad recipes, look no further! This EASY, simple, summer quinoa salad (aka cold quinoa salad) features the BEST summer produce and is perfect for warm nights.

This colorful salad works as the main event or as a side to grilled chicken drumsticks, grilled chicken thighs, or veggie burgers and toppings.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

What Is Quinoa Salad?
How to Make Quinoa Salad
Fresh Corn or Frozen in Summer Quinoa Salad?
More Cold Summer Salad Recipes
PIN THIS SUMMER QUINOA SALAD RECIPE FOR LATER!

Summer livin’ is great, don’t you think?

It probably helps that I’m on maternity leave, so summer feels extraaaaaa nice and relaxed.

I don’t like the heat, but I love the trips to the beach. I love the afternoon dips in the pool. And I really love the bright fresh flavors that are everywhere. When I think of summer produce I think: zucchini, tomatoes, corn. Perhaps it is my midwest upbringing, but these are summer STAPLES and meals should be created around them.

And it’s just how this summer quinoa salad came about. This healthy quinoa salad features my favorite summer staples, all tossed together with a bright (and easy!) pesto dressing and finished with some pine nuts and tangy goat cheese. Because it’s a cold quinoa salad it’s especially great on hot summer nights. Swoon!

What Is Quinoa Salad?

Quinoa salad can mean SO many different things. And I’ve got quite a few quinoa salad recipes on my site. (Yes, I’m obsessed with healthy quinoa salad recipes, I can’t help it.)

But by my definition, quinoa salad is a salad featuring quinoa (obvi!) and some sort of vegetables. Sometimes there are beans, sometimes (ok, usually) there is cheese. Always tasty!

I love that quinoa salads can be made ahead of time and can be eaten at room temperature or cold. They are also a great way to meal prep lunches for the week as most cold quinoa salads hold up quite well.

How to Make Quinoa Salad

This quinoa with summer vegetables couldn’t be easier.

First, we’re going to cook the quinoa. I like to use broth instead of water to give it some more flavor. But using water is also fine.

Then, it’s time to get the vegetables ready. We’ll lightly saute the zucchini, corn, and tomatoes until tender crisp.

After we mix up the dressing: a delicious and bright combination of pesto, lemon juice, and water.

And then we toss the quinoa and veggies with the dressing and top it with some toasted pine nuts and goat cheese crumbles. Summer quinoa salad with corn is done!

cold quinoa salad with corn, tomatoes, zucchini

It’s also excellent topped with some grilled chicken if you want to turn it into a full meal. Pack it up for the beach, or music in the park, but it tastes just as good in your hot apartment. 😉

Fresh Corn or Frozen in Summer Quinoa Salad?

You’ll notice that I often use frozen corn because it’s easier to deal with. I’ve figured out my hangup with fresh corn on the cob. Then I used fresh corn for a few recipes and realized it’s not THAT hard to shuck and cut kernels off the cob. But I shucked a lot of corn as a kid. It was the job that my brother and I had to do every day that corn was on the menu. Which was every day that corn was in season. Which ended up being a lot – and I guess I’m still scarred from it! Oh, and I also very distinctly remember spending a day shucking corn so that we could put it up for the winter. That really pushed me over to team frozen. So for a recipe like this one, I usually go with frozen just to make things extra easy.

But as I always mention, use whatever makes sense for you! Fresh or frozen, I think it all tastes good! (My grilled tilapia foil packets also use shortcut frozen corn – even in the summer!)

More Cold Summer Salad Recipes

I told you I loved healthy quinoa salads! Here are some of my favorites, I’m sure there will be more to to come. 🙂

I love hearing from you guys when you make recipes you’ve found here so let me know what you think, or tag me on social media (@myeverydaytable or #myeverydaytable) so I can see your creations!