This Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad is packed with protein, veggies, and all of your favorite summer flavors. All you need are cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, quinoa, and a healthy homemade dressing!
If you are looking for a fresh, EASY and healthy quinoa salad recipe, this fresh Caprese salad is it!
A Go-To Summer Salad
Please tell me that you started drooling the moment you saw these photos. WE DID. Caprese salad is one of our favorite go-to salads. Especially in the summer!
Lee and I fell in love with Caprese salad, long before we developed this quinoa salad recipe and even before Fit Foodie Finds was even a twinkle in our eyes (this is Linley btw). I know that we have mentioned this before, but I absolutely LOVE talking about the fact that Lee and I fell in love in Italy.
Anyway, we fell in love with Italian food and culture and this Caprese salad takes me back. Perhaps Team Fit Foodie needs to take another trip to Italy for more Italian food inspiration (HECK YES). Forgive me for getting sidetracked from this gorgeous salad. Let’s focus, people.
Side Dish or Meal — Your Choice!
This fresh Caprese quinoa salad is one of my favorite quinoa salad recipes on Fit Foodie Finds! I love that you can use this Caprese salad as a side dish, a salad for lunch, or make a double batch and use it for meal-prep throughout the week!
You won’t believe how incredibly easy it is to make this quinoa salad. Let’s get into it:
Caprese Quinoa Salad Ingredients
- Quinoa
- Tomatoes
- Mozzarella
- Basil
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Balsamic Vinegar
I know, it’s not a long list and it is just as easy as it sounds to whip this salad up in no time! I’m telling you, this salad is the perfect summer salad.
How to Make Caprese Quinoa Salad
Cook Quinoa: In a medium-sized pan, bring water and quinoa to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low until all of the water is absorbed.
Cool Quinoa: Cool the cooked quinoa in a bowl in the refrigerator for at least an hour before preparing the salad.
Prep Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Basil: To prepare the salad, halve the cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls. Then, give your basil a rough chop.
Add in Dressing: Mix in your olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper (to taste), and then add all ingredients for the salad in a large mixing bowl.
Mix it All Together & Enjoy! Mix all the ingredients well. Make sure everything is covered in the delicious olive oil and balsamic dressing. Serve immediately, or store for up to 3-5 days in an air-tight container in the fridge!
More Quinoa Salads
- Golden Roasted Cauliflower and Quinoa Salad
- Quinoa Tabouli Recipe
- Mexican Quinoa Salad
- BEST Quinoa Salad Recipes
Fresh Caprese Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup quinoa uncooked
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella balls halved
- 1.5 cups cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup fresh basil roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a medium-sized pan, bring 1 1/3 cup water and 2/3 cup quinoa to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low until all of the water is absorbed.
- Cool the cooked quinoa in the refrigerator for at least an hour before preparing the salad.
- To prepare the salad, mix all ingredients for the salad in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Make sure everything is covered in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and enjoy!
Excellent recipe! I’ll try if it suits me the same as you Thank you! I will save them as favorites <3
Absolutely loved this recipe. Added to my notes!
many thanks!
Absolutely loved this recipe. Super quick and very delicious! I substituted the fresh basil for dry and unfortunately I did not have those delicious mozzarella balls but I still found the recipe to be very light and fresh. I was worried the dressing would be a bit overpowering as someone who does not have caprese recipes often, but it was the perfect ratio! Can’t wait to try more quinoa recipes from fitfoodiefinds 🙂
So glad you loved this recipe!
This recipe is so simple, but is so delicious! And it keeps for a few days, so it’s perfect to make ahead to bring for lunch
Oh I love mozzarella and tomatoes! Thanks for the recipe! I will try that for our barbecue (or maybe substitute with Couscous).
I replaced the Quinoa with Pearl Couscous (Israeli couscous) and it was so good! The aromatic flavor of basil along with the acidity of vinegar combined to give a taste that reminded me of wild green guavas that grow in my home island of Puerto Rico! I can see myself making this again for a hot summer day or for an outdoor picnic at the lake!
Yay! I am so glad you loved this recipe. So GOOD and so many great flavors!
I made this over the weekend and it came out great! Only thing I did differently was the dressing – mixed the olive oil and chopped basil in the blender and then poured it over. Let it sit overnight in the fridge and had it for lunch the next day. All of the quinoa recipes, I find, taste better the next day so I often wait a day to eat it.
what kind of quinoa did you use? have always wanted to cook with it, but there are different kinds and i have no idea which ones are better for certain recipes.
Hello! This salad looks so good and I can’t wait to try it. I pinned it on my Gluten Free Recipes on Pinterest. Instead of seeing the salad, there is a photo of your darling son. Is there a way I can put the salad photo on with the recipe so that I will recognize it when I am looking for it? Sadly, I may not get groceries for a week or two. I don’t mean to be rude, but I would love to have the salad photo with the recipe. And some of my friends may like to try it if they see how yummy it looks.
Thank you!
Hey Donna! That is odd…Pinterest should give you the ability to pin any of the photos from my site. What you can do is save one of the photos to your computer. And then create a new pin inside pinterest and link it back to the post. That would be the work around!
Thanks and sorry you are having troubles!
Hi Lee! Thanks so much! I had to play with it a bit. I saved the photo and then did a new post using the picture and it gave me the opportunity to put a description so I put in your page link. But then when I went to the post it didn’t give me the opportunity to go to the link by just clicking on the photo like most Pinterest posts are. But then once it was posted, I clicked on “edit” and it allowed me to add a “source” and when I put your link address in there it worked great! Thanks so much for you advice and the great recipes!
I was thinking the exact same thing about the vinegar!! i think of it as a part of mozz and tomatoes and basil.
I was wondering, I see the Balsamic Vinegar bottle next to the bowl but there’s no vinegar in the recipe? Was there supposed to be vinegar in there?
Well thanks 🙂 How were you doing it before?
Thanks for the perfect quinoa cooking directions! Normally i get crunchy bits but this came out perfect.
I am on a HCG diet and have to watch my calorie intake,,, can you please help me with the calorie count,,, I love Quinoa
I am 0n a HCG diet , and have to be keep a watchful eye on my calorie intake , I love Quinoa but reluctant,,, can you please help me in the calorie count ….
I cook my quinoa in the rice cooker just like I would rice and it comes out perfectly every time! I have never attempted stove top! Thanks for the recipe…I always make boring quinoa and dress it like I would rice. This is a great idea!