This Kale & Quinoa Harvest Bowl recipe from The Whole Smiths is perfect for Fall. Loaded up with some of your favorite hearty, healthy eats it’s cozy enough for the cold season but won’t leave you feeling stuffed. Not to mention, it’s gluten-free and you have the option to make it dairy-free.
Brad and I have a new favorite in the family. It’s not Cam and it’s not T. It’s these Kale + Quinoa Harvest Bowls. I don’t know how the girls feel about that but it’s true. We cannot stop eating them. It’s kinda embarrassing. Not too long ago we started purchasing a similar bowl at $10 a bowl. And while it was delicious and worth every penny, I realized that we could be making something very similar at home for a fraction of the cost.
Sometimes salads are hard to wrap my head around making at home. As I’ve said before, I like my salads with a lot of stuff on them. Minimal lettuce, lots of stuff. But with lots of stuff comes lots of prep. Because of that, I don’t often prepare interesting enough salads at home.
But this harvest bowl recipe? It’s a breeze. There’s minimal prep but loads of flavor. The only work is roasting up some sweet potatoes and making some quinoa. Not to mention, this quinoa salad bowl packs up quite well which means it’s the perfect dish to spend a few extra minutes on a Sunday meal prepping for this one.
How to make this Kale Quinoa Harvest Bowl recipe:
Let’s chat about prepping a few of these components, shall we? First, the sweet potatoes. All you need to do is dice them into bite-sized pieces and roast them on a baking sheet. That’s it. While you’re at it, feel free to roast a couple extras for you to use in other dishes through the week. Like for my Pumpkin Curry!
How to cook quinoa perfectly in your Instant Pot:
Next, quinoa. Admittedly, I don’t prepare a lot of quinoa around here. Partly because I always thought it would be a pain in the ass to make and partly because I don’t eat a lot of grains regularly. But I recently started making it in the Instant Pot and it comes out beautifully every time.
In short, this is how I do it. Rinse 1 cup of quinoa and lightly spray the inside of the Instant Pot with some oil. Add the quinoa and 1[1/2] cups of water to the Instant Pot. Set it on “Manual” for 1 minute and let it depressurize for about 10 minutes. That’s it.
Easy, right? You can make your quinoa any way you’d like but if you have an Instant Pot, give it a try. While you’re at it, make sure to try my Instant Pot Coconut Rice as well.
How to make the Lemon Tahini Dressing:
Dressing! The best part of any salad in my opinion. A dressing can make or break a salad, am I right? A terrible dressing (*cough*cough* Hidden Valley Ranch) can ruin the best of any salad. But a great dressing enhances the flavors of your salad.
In this Kale & Quinoa Harvest Bowl recipe, I use my Lemon Tahini Dressing. It is SO easy to make. All you need to do is pop the ingredients into a blender and blend.
Whew. How’s that for a run down? Now, hop on over to the market, grab the ingredients and getting prepping. Your week deserves it!
Tips for making this Quinoa Harvest Bowl recipe:
- Make sure to remove the stems thoroughly from your kale prior to chopping it. No one like a tough stem in their salad.
- Also, make sure to chop your kale into bite-sized pieces. No need to a giant hunk you need to cut up.
- Feel free to add a sprinkle of salt over top. Kale is quite cruciferous and I find tends to taste a bit better with a bit more salt. But then again, I like salty things. You do you but it’s ok to add a touch more salt if you like things on the saltier side.
FAQ:
Can I make this quinoa bowl dairy-free?
I mentioned that you can make this recipe dairy-free, that’s how we usually eat it, to be honest. All you need to do is omit the blue cheese. It’s really a no-brainer. So much so that I’m not even sure why I’m spending my time telling you this. You are an intelligent human, I know that. But there’s bound to be someone out there that will inevitably ask. So, just omit the blue cheese. The rest of the recipe is dairy-free.
Can I use anything in place of dried cranberries?
Yes! Dried apples are a great alternative as well as dried cherries.
Is this Whole30 compliant?
No. The quinoa is a grain, so that’s out. Blue cheese = dairy, so that’s out and there is a bit of maple syrup in the dressing. Omit all of those and include additional sweet potatoes to make it compliant.
How long will this last in the refrigerator?
The components should last a solid 4 to 5 days refrigerated. Store the components sparely and assemble the day of.
Quinoa Kale Harvest Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and iced into bite sized pieces
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 10 ounces chopped tuscan lacinto kale, stems removed (about 10 stems of kale)
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1/2 cup pecans candied or salted, your choice
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 crumbled blue cheese optional
- 1 cup Lemon Tahini Dressing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425* F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Toss the sweet potato with the olive oil and salt. Spread the sweet potato evenly in one layer onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast the sweet potato for 30 to 35 minutes, flipping halfway through.
- Remove the sweet potato bites and let them cool to room temp.
- To assemble the salad bowl, plate the kale and top with 1/4 of the sweet potatoes, 1/4 of the quinoa, 1/4 of the cranberries and 1/4 of the blue cheese (optional). Pour dressing (recipe here) over top to taste and sprinkle with a touch of additional salt if desired.
Notes
- Make sure to remove the stems thoroughly from your kale prior to chopping it. No one like a tough stem in their salad.
- Also, make sure to chop your kale into bite-sized pieces. No need to a giant hunk you need to cut up.
- Feel free to add a sprinkle of salt over top. Kale is quite cruciferous and I find tends to taste a bit better with a bit more salt. But then again, I like salty things. You do you but it’s ok to add a touch more salt if you like things on the saltier side.
