Colorful Beet Salad with Carrot, Quinoa & Spinach
Reset with this healthy superfood salad featuring raw beets, carrot, quinoa, spinach, edamame and avocado. It's as colorful as it is nutritious!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 1, 2024
Reset with this healthy beet salad recipe featuring superfoods like carrot, quinoa, spinach, edamame and avocado. This salad is as flavorful and nutritious as its bold colors would suggest.
This beet salad is tender, crisp and irresistible! The light apple cider, lime and herb dressing brings it all together.
Yesterday was not my day. I stayed up too late the night before (will I ever learn?). I ate lasagna for breakfast, forgot several important items on my grocery list, and fell over in yoga class. More than once. Maybe it was a normal day after all.
I managed to piece together this mega colorful beet salad with ingredients from the store and some substitutions based on what I had at home.
It’s a meal-in-a-bowl version of my simple beet and arugula salad that helped me find some much-needed balance during my totally ungraceful day. The recipe comes from a brand new cookbook called Inspiralized, by my friend Ali Maffucci.
Beet Salad Tips
The original recipe called for two beets instead of one beet, one carrot, and chopped mint instead of cilantro. I toasted the nuts (it’s a pain, but adds so much flavor!) and tinkered with the dressing a bit. I love how it turned out!
I don’t have a spiralizer (the contraption that turns vegetables into noodles), so I picked a recipe that didn’t necessarily require one (although, if you’re buying the book, you’ll need a spiralizer as well). I made do with my mandoline and julienne peeler. (This post contains affiliate links.)
All that said, don’t worry if you don’t have any of those things! You can make this salad with a sharp chef’s knife as well. (Or better yet, Charlotte grated the beet and carrot on her box grater!)
Watch How to Make Colorful Beet Salad
Please let me know how this salad turns out for you in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Craving more colorful, healthy recipes? I think you’ll love my cookbook! Here are a few more options on the blog:
- Simple Beet, Arugula and Feta Salad
- Peanut Slaw with Soba Noodles
- Colorful Chopped Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
- Build-Your-Own Buddha Bowl
- Veggie Sushi Bowls
Colorful Beet Salad with Carrot, Quinoa & Spinach
Reset with this healthy beet salad recipe featuring superfoods like carrot, quinoa, spinach, edamame and avocado. It’s as colorful as it is nutritious! Recipe yields two meal-sized salads or four side salads. If you plan on having leftovers, store the greens separately from the other prepared ingredients and toss just before serving.
Ingredients
Salad
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- 1 cup frozen shelled edamame
- ⅓ cup slivered almonds or pepitas (green pumpkin seeds)
- 1 medium raw beet, peeled
- 1 medium-to-large carrot (or 1 additional medium beet), peeled
- 2 cups packed baby spinach or arugula, roughly chopped
- 1 ripe avocado, cubed
Vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or cilantro
- 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup or agave nectar
- ½ to 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, to taste
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- To cook the quinoa: First, rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh colander under running water for a minute or two. In a medium-sized pot, combine the rinsed quinoa and 1 cup water. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, then cover the pot, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the quinoa from heat and let it rest, still covered, for 5 minutes. Uncover the pot, drain off any excess water and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Set it aside to cool.
- To cook the edamame: Bring a pot of water to boil, then add the frozen edamame and cook just until the beans are warmed through, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- To toast the almonds or pepitas: In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the almonds or pepitas, stirring frequently, until they are fragrant and starting to turn golden on the edges, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large serving bowl to cool.
- To prepare the beet(s) and/or carrot: First of all, feel free to just chop them as finely as possible using a sharp chef’s knife OR grate them on a box grater. If you have a spiralizer, you can spiralize them using blade C, then chop the ribbons into small pieces using a sharp chef’s knife. If you have a mandoline and julienne peeler (this is a pain), use the mandoline to julienne the beet and use a julienne peeler to julienne the carrot, then chop the ribbons into small pieces using a sharp chef’s knife.
- To prepare the vinaigrette: Whisk together all of the ingredients until emulsified.
- To assemble the salad: In your large serving bowl, combine the toasted almonds/pepitas, cooked edamame, prepared beet(s) and/or carrot, roughly chopped spinach/arugula (see note above about leftovers), cubed avocado and cooked quinoa.
- Finally, drizzle dressing over the mixture (you might not need all of it) and gently toss to combine. You’ll end up with a pink salad if you toss it really well! Season to taste with salt (up to an additional ¼ teaspoon) and black pepper. Serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals by Ali Maffucci.
Make it vegan: Opt for maple syrup or agave nectar instead of honey.
Make it nut free: Opt for pepitas instead of almonds.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I love how bright and colourful this salad is; it looks so inviting and delicious!
This looks amazing! If you wouldn’t have mentioned the substitutions, it wouldn’t have even occurred to me that it was a modified recipe. LOVE cilantro and quinoa…adding this to my dinner ideas list!
This is a perfect recipe for me, all my fave flavours and foods – Bookmarking for spring salads :)
Wow, what a vibrant salad bowl! I just want to dive right into it. And falling at yoga is normal, it means you’re actually trying to do the work, so don’t beat yourself up :)
Oh, I’m always falling over. I blame my wobbly ankles. Yesterday I fell out of tree, which almost never happens! Thanks, Ksenia!
when I first read this I thought you fell out of A tree and was like “Oh no!”
haha!
Hey Kate! We listened to the podcast, and you sounded just fine! The hubster buster wants to know what Cookie sounds like. And I agree that some days are better than others. This salad recipe looks mouth watering- I will make it this week. Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you, PL! Glad to hear it. Cookie is pretty quiet most of the time, except for when the mail man comes to the door! Sheesh. Hope you love this salad!
Oh my gosh, there must have been something in the air yesterday– my day was all off-balance as well (although I didn’t actually fall over :-) Funny how righting yourself with healthy food seems to right the other aspects of life as well, and this looks so delicious and perfect for that. I have all the ingredients except for the beets, but I’m thinking the broccoli I have on hand could be awfully good in this… if not as colorful, of course. Gorgeous salad, gorgeous pics!
Hi from another Kate! This salad is the most beautiful colorful mess—I can’t wait to make it. As someone who tends to make a big batch of grains at the beginning of the week to doctor up for lunches and suppers, this seems like a good change from the usual—this will be next up for my quinoa weeks. Though I think I may just pour that vinaigrette on everything… Thanks, Kate!
I made your colorful beet salad with carrot, Quinoa and spinach. Wow, what a great salad. I just dived right into it. So delicious.Love it. Hey Kate I would like to make healthy dumpling with home made dough with out butter, but don’t know how to make my own dough Would you please help me.
Thanks Kate,
Rosemarie Sandvik xx
Hi Rosemarie! So glad you enjoyed this salad. I’m sorry, I don’t have any experience with dumplings. I bet you could substitute coconut oil for the butter (I’ve done that successfully with scones). You might try googling “vegan dumplings” or something along those lines. Good luck!
Insert all of the googly heart-eyed emojis here.
This salad looks SO GOOD. Just what I need to detox from all of those Easter treats :) Thanks Kate!
I’m sorry, please forgive me, but everything about my day has turned into a song thus far. And this post is making me sing, “You’re so vain, you probably thing this post is about you. Don’t you? Don’t you?” Because just the other day I was like, I’ve never had raw beets. And you were like, “Do it. Eat the raw beets, they’re yummy.” And then you back that up, with this post about this fabulous looking raw beet salad. So, yeah, beets are on my grocery list now.
Haha! Hope you enjoyed those raw beets, Amy!
I love all these foods!
I’ve wanted a spiralizer for a while now, but figured the craze would probably be over by the time I got around to getting one. It’s good to know you can make this beautiful salad without the contraption!
Awesome,thank’s a lot
The colour of the beets alone is enough to win me over on this one (:
This looks delicious! I love what beets do for color and flavor. I look forward to making this!
Yay, salad! I love this kind of veggie-filled lunch in spring especially. All the veg, all the time!
Days like what you described are the kind that you just have to accept happen every now and then and spend a lot more time in Child’s Pose than normal…not a bad thing when you think about it!
Looks b-e-a-utiful. Thanks for sharing and for the note about Ali’s new book.
Impeccable timing Kate! I am in need of both a new beetroot recipe (to save the bunch of beets awaiting their destiny in my fridge) and some reset food after a rather indulgent birthday week (month).
I love everything in this bowl, and I can’t wait to whip it up for dinner tomorrow night, and even better, have leftovers for lunch the next day.
Lettuce Turnip the Beet (sorry, I had to).
this looks so simple yet so deliciouuus!!
Sooo, the beets are raw? Salad looks yummy and I am always looking for ways to use the beets from my CSA.
Lasagna for breakfast, falling over in yoga, staying up too late (again…) – are we the same person?! I digress.
This salad looks like the perfect remedy for any amount of crazy the day throws at you. As always, gorgeous, Kate <3
Hi Kate,
A hack for those of us low-budget (I prefer the term low-gadget) cooks: Instead of using a spiralizer or a julienne peeler, I just did the beets and carrots on a good box grater – worked “grate”!
Charlotte, you are so smart! I added your suggestion to my recipe. Thank you for sharing your tips!
Wow! All those colours in there = STUNNING. I want a bite.. Like, right now? XD
This is gorgeous, Kathryne! Can’t wait to try this one.
That dressing has all sorts of wonderfulness in it. This is totally the kind of weeknight salad I like to make for dinner at least once a week. Loaded with all kinds of deliciousness. Hearty, yet healthy.
This salad is gorgeous! I need to make this salad very soon, it;s calling my name for sure!
Love the colors!! So springy and summery <3 My eyes are happy. :) Must be so delicious too!!!
Beautiful salad….love the combo of ingredients!
Girl, your salads always look soooo good. I wanna come over for lunch.
wow!! beautiful colors! This would make such a great party salad! Yum!!
This looks and must taste absolutely awesome! Thank you for this inspiring recipe. I’m definitely going to make it!! :)
Love that this colorful salad uses mostly raw ingredients – easy on the eyes and the stomach :)
Everything about this is beautiful and I love that you made it your own!
Eating a salad this pretty HAS to make your day better, no matter what has transpired! It’s pretty much a proven fact.
So many antioxidants packed into one salad!
What a beautiful salad! It looks like the perfect way to embrace spring :)
Made this tonight and it was delicious! I’m normally not a huge fan of beets but the tangy dressing worked really well and masked the usual “earthiness” of the beets (even the beet-hating bf couldn’t resist a couple bites ;p). Topped it with a fried runny egg and it was a great post-workout dinner :)
Thanks, Emily! So glad you enjoyed this one.
The colors in this are absolutely stunning! I need to make this ASAP.
This look delicious. I love colourfull salad. I will look step forward to do it as well. I think it will be very fun.
Beautiful! I keep thinking how beautiful veggies are. And I bet it tastes even better than it looks.
You can tell how delicious and healthy this raw beet salad is just by looking at the images. I definitely wish I had a bowlful of it right now (& it takes a very special salad to make me say that)!
beets really do have a way of making anything beautiful!
I love this salad. So glad it is spring so I can make it a lot!
Loved this salad – made it for dinner tonight. I roasted a chioggia beet and chopped it up, and added some green onions. Absolutely yummy recipe..thank you!
Thank you, Rebecca! Glad to hear it!
I made this tonight and am munching it right now. It is so delicious! I never knew you could eat raw beets until I had them julienned in a salad at a restaurant recently. Theirs was excellent, but this is even better!
Hooray! Thanks, Donna!
Perfect salad! Love this recipe!
Yay! Thanks, Julie!
Hi Kate, I’m extremely picky when it comes to salads and wanted to tell you that this one was great! Unique combination of different ingridients and textures. I didn’t think I would like raw beet (didn’t realize I’m not cooking the beet until I made half of the salad) and I loved it! I made it yesterday and will make again today. This is the first recipe I made from your blog and I’m looking forward to discovering others. Thank you!
Hooray! Thanks for letting me know, Kat! I’m glad this salad hit the mark and hope you love my other recipes, too!
Kate, Found you and this recipe when I go
Hi Kate, Found you and this recipe when I googled for a beet salad. This was exactly what I was looking for. I just bought the Spiralizer and was anxious to use it. Also have her cookbook. I compared your variations to hers and love what you did. I too enjoy adding my own twist to recipes. Made the salad to take to a dinner party last night. Added a little feta but otherwise made as you suggested. I thought it was delicious and so pretty. Will be eating the leftovers for lunch this week. Bet it gets even better as the beats soak up the tangy dressing. Can’t wait to see what else you have on your site. I’m excited. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Betsi! So glad you enjoyed this one, including my substitutions. I just can’t help myself… bet it was great with feta!
Forgot to rate it.
Yay, salad! I love this kind of veggie-filled lunch in spring especially. All the veg, all the time!
Thanks, Athena!
This looks delicious, thank you! Would like to make ahead have for lunches this week. I will do as suggested and mix the greens in on each day (and dressing then too). Any idea how long it will keep for?
Thanks, Louisa! I’m not quite sure how long it will keep that way. Maybe three, tops four days? Be sure to add the avocado just before serving, too.