Looking for a healthy and delicious salad? Try this kale quinoa salad with honey mustard dressing!

This vibrant salad combines nutrient-rich kale and protein-packed quinoa, creating a perfect mix for any lunch or dinner. Along with the addition of sweet potato, kidney beans, and walnuts, this salad is as satisfying as it is delicious.

The sweet and tangy homemade honey mustard dressing adds a burst of flavor that makes every bite enjoyable.

Packed with vitamins and minerals, this salad is not only good for your body but also easy to make. Let’s dive into this recipe and discover how to whip up a tasty dish that everyone will love!

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Why you’ll love this kale quinoa salad with honey mustard dressing

This Kale quinoa salad, tossed with a zesty honey mustard dressing, delivers a nutritious punch packed with flavor. Here’s just a few of the many reasons why you will love this kale quinoa salad:

Perfect mix of sweet and tangy: This salad is dressed in my perfect honey mustard sauce. The honey mustard dressing is made with equal parts honey and mustard, making it a perfect balance of tangy and sweet flavors.
Colorful: The orange of the sweet potato, red from the kidney beans, green of the kale, and yellow from the quinoa all come together to make a beautifully colorful dish that makes you hungry just looking at it.
Crowd pleaser: Bring this to a party, and it’s sure to be a crowd favorite!
Great for meal prepping: You can make this salad at the start of the week and it’ll still be fresh days later.

Ingredients

For the salad you’ll need:

Quinoa – While traditional quinoa is used in this recipe, any color/type of quinoa will work great here.
Kale – You could buy a bunch of kale leaves, but to make prep easier for this recipe, use pre-chopped and washed packaged kale for ease.
Kidney beans – They make the salad more filling as the kidney beans provide ample amount of fiber. Not only are they filling, but the kidney beans also are a pretty red color that complements the green of the kale.
Walnuts – A good salad always has a crunchy component. In this case, the crunch comes from walnuts.
Parsley – A healthy and hearty herb that offers more green as well as flavor to the salad dish.
Sweet potato – Golden sautéed cubed sweet potato adds subtle sweetness and not so subtle color to the dish.

To make the homemade honey mustard dressing, you’ll need the following ingredients:

Honey – The sweet and smooth component of the dressing.
Mustard – Bright, tangy, and bold, mustard makes the dressing flavor packed and a vibrant yellow.
Olive oil – Adds richness and makes the honey mustard sauce nice, smooth, and pourable.
Lemon juice – A little bit of acid is needed to balance the flavors. Citrus juice especially adds a pop of freshness.
Onion powder – You get the benefit of depth of flavor without the hassle of mincing an onion. Plus, using onion powder as opposed to fresh onion keeps the dressing smooth and creamy.
Salt and pepper – The power couple in the food world.

How to make kale quinoa salad with honey mustard dressing

Although this salad is made up of several separate components, preparing it is pretty simple.

Cook the quinoa. Combine dry quinoa and water in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and let cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn of the heat, keep the quinoa covered, and let it sit for 5 minutes more. Then, remove the cover and fluff with a fork. Cool the quinoa before adding it to the salad.
Sauté the sweet potato. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add some oil, sweet potato, and water. Cover and steam the potato for 3 minutes. Uncover and sauté until golden and crisp, adding more oil if needed.
Massage the kale. In a large bowl, put the kale and 1 tsp salt. Massage the salt into the kale until slightly wilted.
Combine it all together. Add the cooled quinoa, sweet potato, kidney beans, parsley, and walnuts to the kale.
Make the honey mustard dressing. Combine all the dressing ingredients into a jar, put on the lid, and shake vigorously until combined.
Dress the salad. Drizzle the honey mustard dressing on the salad. Gently toss to evenly coat. Enjoy!

Tips

These tips will help you make the best quinoa salad ever.

Add more veggies. Incorporating additional fresh veggies like bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and/or cucumber adds additional vibrant color and crunch to the dish.
Add the dressing in stages. To ensure that you get the perfect amount of dressing for your preferences, add it in stages. Pour half of the dressing over the salad, toss to coat, then try a bite. Add more dressing, a bit at a time, until it’s your preferred amount.
Massage the kale. Before tossing everything else in with the kale, give it a quick “massage” to help soften it up a bit. Kale can be fibrous and tough to chew when raw, so rubbing it along with a teaspoon of salt for about a minute will help soften it up and make it easier to enjoy.
Use the proper water to quinoa ratio. To make the best, fluffiest quinoa, you need to use the right ratio of water to quinoa while cooking. For every cup of quinoa, use 1 2/3 cups of water. One cup of dry quinoa will cook up into 3 cups of cooked quinoa.

Wrapping it all up

Go ahead, give this kale quinoa salad with honey mustard dressing a try! It’s a delicious and healthy choice for any day of the week.

This kale quinoa salad is a combination of so many good ingredients, it really is a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals. But, more importantly, this salad tastes really freakin’ good.

The sweet and tangy honey mustard dressing adds a flavor punch that everyone will love. Whether you enjoy it as a main dish or a side, this salad is easy to make and perfect for any occasion. Try it today for a tasty boost to your day!

The hearty, nutrient-dense kale provides essential vitamins, while the quinoa adds a complete protein source, making this salad both filling and energizing.