Healthy Pomegranate Quinoa Salad

This Healthy Pomegranate Quinoa Salad is full of seasonal, whole, and healthy ingredients. You can prepare it at the beginning of the week and it will keep well un-dressed for the entire week. This means you can divide out portions of it into reusable containers and skip the plastic wrapped stuff in the cafeteria!

We just entered pomegranate season here in North America and I am ready for it!

Aside from being delicious and ever so festive for the holidays, pomegranates are little nutritional powerhouses. They are full of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, offering us a slew of benefits from better skin to fighting infections to helping ward off certain types of cancer.

Plus, they just make every meal so beautiful!

To make this salad heartier, I included cooked rainbow quinoa, a wonderful gluten-free grain full of protein. I recommend sourcing this quinoa locally from trusted farmers or purchasing it with a Fair Trade lab (see my Guide on Foods to Buy Fair Trade). The quinoa should be cooked ahead of time and allowed to cool so it doesn’t wilt the arugula in your salad. For a great video on how to cook quinoa so it doesn’t turn to mush, I recommend Cookie + Kate’s great post on How to Cook Perfect Quinoa & 10 Quinoa Recipes.

The shallots and walnuts offer great complementary flavors and balance to the pomegranate. You can top this salad with any dressing that suits your fancy. For me, a heavy dose of olive oil, a hearty squeeze of lemon, and some salt and pepper were all that was needed.

What Makes the Healthy Pomegranate Quinoa Salad Revolutionary?

The Healthy Pomegranate Quinoa Salad is:

1. Totally vegan (or vegetarian if you add cheese). Eating less meat and dairy is one of the single most effective ways individuals can combat climate change.
2. Made with ingredients that are currently in season for much of North America. Eating local, seasonal ingredients means that the food doesn’t have to travel far to get to you, which reduces the environmental impact.
3. Reducing plastic packaging waste by buying whole ingredients. The shallot, pomegranate, and lemon can be put directly into your shopping basket and you skip the plastic produce bags. Additionally, some stores and farmer’s markets have loose, unpackaged arugula. If yours does, bring some re-useable produce bags and skip the plastic bag from the grocery store. If your store has other types of loose greens but not arugula, feel free to swap the arugula in this recipe for those. For the quinoa and walnuts, many grocery stores have them in the bulk bins now. If yours does, bring a couple of mason jars and stock up!
4. Bringing your own lunch to work or school can reduce the packaging waste that prepared meals are often wrapped in.
5. Ideally your store carries Fair Trade quinoa. If not, I suggest looking into where you might be able to source it. Check out my Guide of Foods to Buy Fair Trade.

Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments below!