Quinoa Fruit Salad with Toasted Coconut Flakes

I’m a big fan of quinoa and have used it in so many different ways. A substitute for my routine bowl of oatmeal, a thickener in soup and a base for these sweet potato quinoa cakes — just to name a few. This weekend I realized that despite all the different quinoa salads I’ve made, I’d never made one with fruit. Obviously that needed to change.

Mother’s Day brunch seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a fruity quinoa creation. I looked around online for a good recipe and found this one from Oprah.com. Despite realizing that the photo featured probably isn’t of the actual recipe (it has blackberries and pomegranate arils and the recipe doesn’t call for either), I LOVED the look of the golden toasted coconut topping and decided to run with it.

I used fresh pineapple instead of canned and made a creamy dressing with avocado to flavor the salad. The quinoa did have a slight green hue from the dressing but no one seemed to mind. I kind of liked it!

Not only did the kiwi add a nice splash of vibrant green color to the salad, it also reminded me how much I like kiwi. I often forget about it when grocery shopping but it’s so tasty, high in fiber, potassium, and vitamin C, and lower in sugar than many other fruits. Gotta remember to pick more up next time I’m shopping!

So now that I have one quinoa fruit salad under my belt, you can expect to see another fruit and quinoa recipe soon. All my favorite berries will be coming into season in a few weeks so naturally I’m already dreaming of a mixed berry quinoa salad. Until then, try this one and let me know what you think. 🙂

If you enjoy this quinoa salad, you can check out my roundup of quinoa salad recipes.

Quinoa Fruit Salad with Toasted Coconut Flakes

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• Author: Brittany Mullins
• Yield: 4

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Description

Adapted from Toasted Coconut Fruit Salad with Quinoa and Pineapple-Lime Dressing. I used pineapple chunks blended well for the dressing but if you prefer your dressing to have less pulp you can use pineapple juice instead.

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Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup unsweetened, dried coconut flakes
• 3 ripe kiwis, peeled, quartered and each quarter cut into thirds
• 1 cup diced strawberries
• 2 cups fresh pineapple chunks

Avocado Dressing

• 1/2 cup fresh pineapple chunks (or 1/3 cup fresh pineapple juice)
• 1.5 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 avocado

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Instructions

1. Place water and quinoa into saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. Take the lid off and allow the quinoa to cool completely. Once it’s cool to touch, you can put the quinoa in a bowl and place it in the fridge to cool down even further.
2. Preheat a sauté pan to medium heat. Add coconut flakes and stir constantly until they turn a golden color (this will take about 1-3 minutes). Remove the coconut flakes from the pan and allow to cool.
3. In a large bowl, toss the quinoa, kiwi pieces, strawberries and pineapple chunks.
4. Blend 1/2 cup fresh pineapple, lime juice and avocado in a high powder blender until smooth and creamy.
5. Pour dressing over quinoa and fruit. Toss to combine.
6. Sprinkle with toasted coconut right before serving.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
• Calories: 300
• Sugar: 16g
• Fat: 7g
• Carbohydrates: 56g
• Fiber: 8g
• Protein: 8g