Two of my recent food obsessions have been quinoa and cauliflower and it was past time for me to use them both in a dish together! Another thing that I have been enjoying lately is whole grain salads where the recipes follows some basic guidelines including starting off with quinoa or a whole grain like farro, a vegetable or two, possibly some beans and/or nuts, a cheese and a dressing. As soon as I had the idea of using quinoa and cauliflower together one of these salads sounded like a great way to go! Of course I had to go with roasted cauliflower since it is so addictively good and I figured that I might as well roast some mushrooms up at the same time. For this salad I decided to omit any beans but I did throw in some walnuts and a balsamic vinaigrette. Which cheese to use was the only real question as there a few good options including feta, blue cheese and the one that I chose, a creamy goat cheese. Goat cheese is a particularly nice option for salad like this because if you add it to the salad while the ingredients are still warm, it starts to melt into the salad spreading it’s goodness throughout. This salad goes well either warm or cool and it makes for a nice side or even a light meal. If you want to bulk it up a bit for a meal you can add some chickpeas and serve it on a bed of greens such as kale, spinach or lettuce. I have to say that the roast cauliflower, mushroom and quinoa combo was a nice and tasty one and healthy to boot!
Roasted Cauliflower and Mushroom Quinoa Salad in Balsamic Vinaigrette
Roasted cauliflower and mushrooms in a warm quinoa salad with a balsamic vinaigrette and creamy crumbled goat cheese.
ingredients
- 1/2 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 8 ounces mushrooms, quartered
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup quinoa, well rinsed
- 1 3/4 cups water or broth
- 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup goat, feta or blue cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme, chopped
directions
- Toss the cauliflower and mushrooms in the oil, thyme, salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast in a preheated 400F/200C oven until they start to caramelize, about 20-30 minutes, mixing half way through.
- Meanwhile, bring the water and quinoa to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the quinoa is tender and has absorbed the water, about 15-20 minutes, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes, covered.
- Mix everything and enjoy.
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What a gorgeous recipe – loving all of the flavors and ingredients!
Roasted cauliflower is one of my faves too, love the caramelly flavor it gets. This is a hearty salad. Looks delish!
Yum! I've been jumping onto the cauliflower bandwagon too lately. It's such a versatile veggie. Love the caramelization of this one.
This is my kind of salad! I LOVE roasted veggies and the Balsamic Vinaigrette sounds awesome!
Just. Perfect.
Fantastic flavors! I can't wait to try this salad!
I love both quinoa and cauliflower and now I'm wondering why I haven't thought about combining them before? Delicious Kevin!
Thanks for sharing and thank you for the lovely comment left on my guest post (Meyer Lemon Tart) left on Sommer's (A Spicy Perspective) blog
These are my obsessions too!!! LOVE roasting cauliflower and just made a quinoa salad as well and finding more ways to use it. Love this idea!
I likey ~ especially with that quinoa!
I love the goat cheese! I've made something similar, but never thought of goat cheese…
I am also obsessed with quinoa and cauliflower! I have been looking for a way to jazz up quinoa and this looks perfect!
This is really a combination of so many of my favorite things! Especially balsamic paired with goat cheese…that's a serious love of mine!
Fantastic! Great combo. 🙂
Ooh, quinoa has been my grain of choice lately, I'll have to try out this recipe. I have trouble getting the right flavouring out of quinoa, but this dish looks just right.
We this for dinner last night and it was delicious! Stirring in just a bit of goat cheese really brought it all together. Thanks for the recipe.
I don't get a caramelization on the cauliflower and mushrooms with only 1 Tbl of oil. Mine are very dry. Thoughts?
Maureen Linse-Adras: The cauliflower and mushrooms should have been lightly coated in oil though they do not need to be completely coated. I find that I can get the best coating by getting in there with my hands to mix in the oil. The 'caramelization' is going to be happening on the side that is touching the pan.
Some ideas/questions:
Were you baking straight on the pan? How crowded was the pan with everything on it? If it was too crowded, the moisture from the cauliflower would create a kind of steaming effect which we do not want. Everything needs to be in a single layer touching the pan. You might also want to check the temperature of your oven with a separate thermometer. At 400F for 20-30 minutes the cauliflower and mushrooms should definitely be starting to show a lot of colour.
When do you add the balsamic?
Kevin, this dish looks great!
Anonymous: Mix in the balsamic vinaigrette at the end when you assemble all of the ingredients for the salad.
Any possibility of getting the nutritional info for this recipe?
Made this tonight with blue cheese. FABULOUS! So well balanced, so much flavor.
Made this tonight and it is fabulous.
I can't believe how good roasted cauliflower is. I'll be using it often starting today !
Excellent recipe, thanks a lot.
This recipe is so tasty! I'm making it today for the second time. Just to clarify: is the 1/2 teaspoon of thyme supposed to be listed twice (as in, one to coat the mushrooms and cauliflower and then one to add at the end), or just once?
Anonymous: I am glad that you enjoyed it! Yes, 1/2 teaspoon of thyme gets tossed with the vegetables and roasted and the other half goes into the salad fresh.
I made this Sunday and just eating now for lunch at work and I want to shout and tell everyone how GOOD this salad is! It is the told bomb diggity! I used regular mushrooms, bleu cheese and I didn't have quinoa so I had wheatberries…it is still incredibly the most flavorful salad! The dressing is perfect too! Will definitely make again!
A few months ago I made something from this site with quanoa, It was the first time I'd used it and I thought it would be the last. I hated what I made, there was a lot of it, I don't like to waste food, so I ate it all, Yuck. I was going to throw the rest of the unused quanoa away, but I'm glad I didn't, it's been a while since the disaster! I saw this recipe a while ago and thought it looked nice, so I bookmarked it. It's taken ages to find a nice cauliflower and mushrooms at the same time. I just made this recipe. The cauliflower wouldn't roast, I'm sure it's because I washed it, and it was too steamy in the oven. I never had fresh thyme, so I used dried. I hate feta and blue cheese so I used grated mozzarella instead. I didn't think the baslamic vinegar would taste nice so I only added a little and tasted it, it tasted OK, so I added more! I really loved this recipe, I think fresh thyme, would have been nicer but dried was OK. Thanks very much for this wonderful recipe, I'll be making it again.
Made this tonight exactly as written and it was spectacular. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this tonight and it was delicious. I did have a little ingredient mishap (I was also making homemade applesauce at the time and had my pumpkin spice out on the counter as well as the thyme – I put a huge shake of the pumpkin spice on the veggies instead of thyme. I just added the thyme and it turned out pretty well although my husband did ask "what is that slightly sweet flavor"…ha)! I also used balsamic reduction instead of a vinaigrette so that may have also added some sweetness. I loved it!
I'd love to make this tonight, looks amazing — my boyfriend is a big eater though.. Any ideas for a good side/addition to make it a little heartier? Maybe some meat? Thanks!
Anonymous: II think that a side of green beans would be good but if your are looking for something really hearty then potatoes, sweet potatoes or winter squash/pumpkin may be the way to go.
Absolutely delicious! I increased the roasting heat to 425 for roasting the veggies to carmelize, I toasted almonds (used 1/2 cup) bc didn't have walnuts, I used full head of cauliflower, doubled the mushrooms and used dried thyme. The flavors are delicious–used about 1/2 the vinaigrette. Served with roasted chicken and we all loved it. Healthy, delicious and great the next day room temperature for lunch (sans the mushrooms as they got soggy for my taste).
Thanks Kevin!
This sounds so yummy, Kevin…just printed off the recipe and heading to the supermarket! Will definitely make this over the weekend!
Holy Quinoa, Batman! This is delicious! Made this tonight for dinner with Salmon…used chicken stock and followed recipe exactly…will be making this a lot!
I'm obviously late to the party but have to add that this is amazing. Made this today for the first time & am blown away. This is so much more than excellent I have no words except to say thank you so much, Kevin. Everyone in my family is asking if there is any left over. Nope, no leftovers. 🙂
I'm obviously late to the party but have to add that this is amazing. Made this today for the first time & am blown away. This is so much more than excellent I have no words except to say thank you so much, Kevin. Everyone in my family is asking if there is any left over. Nope, no leftovers. 🙂
This sounds so delicious I think I will make it for Christmas Eve with roasted shrimp on the side. Thanks.
I loved this!! Woke up this morning and saw your cauliflower post, and got inspired to make lunch today. 🙂 I used the goat cheese and pistachios(Trader Joes had a walnut recall-yikes). Anyhow, it was amazing, just what I was looking for. Thanks, Kevin!!
Paige: I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I made this tonight on a bed of cooked spinach and barley instead of quinoa because it's what I had on hand. The flavors and textures were a great combination, and it was so pretty I really wanted to take a picture. I bet leftovers would have been good, but there weren't any. 🙂
Christine: I'm glad you liked it! Barley would also be good in this!
I made this for a church potluck today. I roasted the cauliflower/mushrooms and mixed with the cooked quinoa and put into a casserole dish. Before I serving I warmed that mixture through before finishing with the cheese, toasted walnuts, balsamic vinaigrette, and the rest of the thyme. I received several compliments and I thought that it tasted wonderful. I loved that it was something that typically is not seen on a "Lutheran" church potluck table but still got rave reviews! I will definitely be making this again.
Sarah Breuer: I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's definitely one of my favourites.
I made this last night and it was SO yummy! I didn't have walnuts or mustard (for the balsamic dressing) but it was still excellent without them. I put a whole head of cauliflower and a few extra mushrooms and it made enough for 4 bowls. Definitely printing out this recipe so I can make it often. Thanks!
Roasted cauliflower is one of my favorites as well !
Mushroom Quinoa Salad is one of my go to salads I prepare it on a regular basis for it's health benefits and of course how delicious it is !
Hi Kevin. We've been on a QUINOA KICK recently. Can't get enough! I'm going to make this on Sunday.
Should I serve this warm, room temp, or chilled. Thanks
Nan
This is absolutely delicious! I added garlic powder and omitted the cheese and balsamic because I like more savory dishes. But, I will add the balsamIc Italian vinaigrette when serving my husband because he likes sweet. Thank you so much for this recipe! It has all my favorites in it!