Have you ever checked out Food52.com? They have really simple, elegant recipes and I love browsing through their beautiful photographs. The other day while perusing through their stuff I saw this recipe for One Pot Kale and Quinoa Pilaf and thought it looked like the perfect recipe to help me out with my focus on vegetables for the new year. I love that the kale and quinoa cook together in one pot, making it quick and easy, and I love just about anything with lemon, so making this Lemony Kale and Quinoa Salad was pretty much a no brainer.
I changed a few things in the recipe to fit my needs (as usual) and I loved the results. I cooked the quinoa in vegetable broth instead of salted water, used a regular lemon instead of a meyer lemon, subbed walnuts for the pine nuts (and nixed the walnut oil), and lastly, used a little crumbled feta in place of the goat cheese (even though I do love goat cheese). The end product is a flavorful and filling warm quinoa salad (or pilaf) with multiple layers of unique flavors. I’m eating straight out of a bowl by itself, but it would also make a great bed for some grilled chicken or fish. #lovingit!
Quinoa isn’t exactly cheap, but because this recipe didn’t use a lot, I was still able to make it fit in my budget. If quinoa doesn’t work for you, couscous makes a great inexpensive alternative (plus it cooks in about 10 minutes instead of 15). You could even use orzo if you can’t find cous cous!
P.S. Did I mention that you can eat it hot or cold? I just had seconds and didn’t even bother heating it up. Still delicious!
Lemony Kale and Quinoa Salad
Servings 4 1 cup eachIngredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1/2 bunch Dinosaur/Lacinato Kale* ($0.49)
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth ($0.23)
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa ($2.09)
- 1 fresh lemon ($0.69)
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts ($0.59)
- 1 oz crumbled feta ($0.56)
Instructions
- Rinse the quinoa well with cool water to remove the saponins, a natural coating that can taste bitter. Remove the stems of the kale leaves by running a sharp knife along both sides of each stem. Cut each leaf in half lengthwise, then across into 1/2 inch strips. Rinse the kale well in a colander.
- Mince the garlic and add it to a large pot with the olive oil. Sauté over medium-low heat for one minute, or until the garlic is slightly softened. Add the rinsed kale and sauté for 2-3 minutes more, or just until the kale has wilted and looks dark green and glossy.
- Add the rinsed quinoa to the pot along with vegetable broth. Stir the contents of the pot, place a lid on top, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Let the pot come to a boil. As soon as it does, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Make sure the pot is simmering the whole time.
- After 15 minutes, check the quinoa to see if it is done. Each granule should look slightly transparent with a white outer rim. If there is still a considerable amount of broth left in the bottom of the pot, replace the lid and let simmer for a few minutes more. If there is a small amount of liquid, simply remove the lid and sauté for a couple of minutes, or until the excess liquid evaporates.
- While the pot is simmering, zest half of the lemon. Chop the walnuts and crumble the feta.
- Once the quinoa is cooked and any excess moisture has evaporated, remove the pot from the heat. Sprinkle the lemon zest over the kale and quinoa. Squeeze the juice from half of the lemon over the pot as well. Finally, sprinkle the chopped nuts and crumbled feta on top and serve.**
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Lemony Kale and Quinoa Salad – Step by Step Photos
Start by rinsing 1 cup of uncooked quinoa. Quinoa has a natural substance on the outside that can make it taste really bitter, but a good rinse should wash it all away. A fine mesh strainer makes this job easiest, but it can be rinsed in a bowl and the rinse water carefully poured off afterwards.
Next you’ll need to prep the kale. This bunch of kale that I bought was not only HUGE, but it was only $0.98 cents! I’m not sure if most kale bunches are usually the same size, but this one seemed large and I only ended up using half of it. Luckily, the amount of kale you use for this recipe is very flexible, so if you feel like you can use your entire bunch, go for it. I probably used 6-8 large leaves.
To remove the woody stems, take a sharp knife and run it along both sides of the stem. The stems of Dino kale are much more tender than curly kale, so you don’t even have to remove the stem to the very end of the leaf. Just the toughest parts. Once you remove the stem, slice the leaf in half the rest of the way (lengthwise), so you have two long pieces.
Stack the halved leaves and cut them into thin strips. Place all the strips in a colander and rinse them well.
Mince two cloves of garlic and add them to a large pot with one tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté over medium-low heat for about one minute. (Those little dark bits of pieces of kale that were stuck to my knife when I minced the garlic.)
Add the sliced and rinsed kale (it will mostly fill the pot) and continue to sauté for 2-3 minutes, or just until it wilts down and looks tender and glossy.
Add the rinsed quinoa and 1.5 cups of vegetable broth to the pot. Stir the contents together, place a lid on top, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Let the pot come to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes with the lid in place (make sure it doesn’t stop simmering).
After 15 minutes, the quinoa should be tender and most of the broth absorbed. You can tell the quinoa is done when the center is no longer an opaque white, but looks more like a translucent bead. The outer rim will be solid white. Most of the broth should be absorbed, but if there is a good bit left on the bottom of the pot, replace the lid and let it simmer a few minutes more. If there’s just a little bit of broth hanging out, keep the lid off and let it evaporate as you stir and cook the contents of the pot.
While the pot is simmering away, you can prep the toppings. You’ll want the zest from half of a lemon. I use a small holed cheese grater to get my zest, but there are also gadgets made specifically for zesting.
You’ll also want a 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and one ounce of crumbled feta (that’s actually 2 ounces in the picture, but as I was adding it, I decided it was way too much. You don’t want the feta to over power the dish).
Take the pot off the heat and sprinkle the lemon zest over top. Squeeze the juice from half the lemon into the pot. Lastly, top wit the chopped walnuts and crumbled feta.
Serve the Lemony Kale and Quinoa Salad warm or cold! The end volume will depend on how much kale you ended up adding, but mine made four cups (plus the 5-6 spoonfuls that I shoved in my mouth before measuring). I love it!
I’ve made this recipe upwards of ten times and it’s always fantastic. A staple in our household — the flavours work so well together! Just wanted to say thank you.
All the recipes I’ve tried so far on the site have been delicious, but this is probably my favorite; the flavors work so well together. It works great with regular curly kale, though I found that preparing the grains and kale separately worked better in that case.
I wonder if I could crock pot this?
No, this one would not work well in a crock pot.
This was my first time using dinosaur kale AND my first time trying kale cooked. It turned out great! Walnuts are a bit expensive right now, and so I ended up using sliced almonds instead. It was very fresh tasting, and I love the saltiness that the cheese brings. It paired excellently with some baked salmon my boyfriend had made.
I’m so happy I found this! I love Food52 and have been ogling this recipe for a while, but didn’t want to invest in all the expensive ingredients. Thanks for another great recipe!
I made this today and it was pretty darn good! Quinoa and kale are two things I only started eating recipe, and this was a lovely marriage of the two. (The lemon, walnut, and feta worked together really well!) I used curly kale because it was all I had on hand and it still turned out just fine, and paired very nicely with the lemon thyme chicken breast I paired with it. This recipe is definitely exactly as advertised.
The step by step instructions with pictures were fantastic, too — time to check out the rest of your site!
I just made this and it was so yummy I have stop myself from eating the whole pot. I did make some substitutions based on what I had on hand, curly kale (from the garden), pine nuts and goat cheese. I also added some freshly ground black pepper for that lemon pepper flaky our combo. Will definitely making this again.
Excellent, so simple and yet so delicious. Would definitely recommend adding more kale if you’re substituting the curly variety for the dinosaur one in the original recipe though.
Would this recipe work with frozen kale? I’ve had a bag sitting in my freezer that I need to use & this sounds delish!
Yes, it probably would since the fresh kale gets cooked down before adding it in anyway. So frozen kale, which will be wilted after thawing, should be similar. :)
This recipe is life-changing good. I made it the other night with some roasted chicken thighs and nearly ate it all out of the pan before I could serve the family. I was concerned that the quinoa wouldn’t cook evenly with the kale but I was dead wrong. Seriously, this is good stuff. My 4 year old couldn’t get enough and asked for seconds!
This recipe is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing it! I made it tonight and I almost think I could eat the whole pot. I substituted pine nuts for the walnuts (can’t stand them) and goat cheese for the feta (I like feta fine, but I adore goat cheese), and it is incredible.
This recipe is incredibly delicious and packed with all sorts of goodies! I loved the minimal ingredients necessary, and really, you just toss stuff the pot, and magic happens. Pure magic.
Can you sub the curly kale instead of the dinasour kale? I’m having a hard time finding it.
Yep, just make sure to cut it in really small pieces. :)
I really love your recipes. You’ve become my “go-to” site for every meal.
Made this kale and quinoa recipe this afternoon for the first time. I tasted it before I added the lemon zest and juice, and it was yummy then. It just became more interesting and complex with the lemon!
I did omit the feta cheese, but I did toast in the toaster over the walnuts, and added about a cup in a doubled recipe.
I do think that I might have cooked this too long, however. It is a bit “sticky” but the quinoa wasn’t cooked at the 15 minutes in my doubled recipe.
Should the time also be doubled when you double the ingredients??
Thanks again for a terrific web site.
You shouldn’t need to double the time, although maybe an extra five minutes or so might help. Other things, like the thickness of your pot or slight changes in the heat level can change the cooking time a little, too.
Made this last night, was delicious! Doubled the recipe for a quick tasty lunch for us. Thank you!