Black Bean Quinoa Salad with Sweet Potatoes & Kale

Looking for some winter salad ideas? This nourishing black bean quinoa salad uses winter produce and is tossed in a delicious cumin orange vinaigrette! It takes about an hour to make if starting all components from scratch, and is slightly more involved, but the taste is worth it! Plus, it gets you a few days' worth of flavorful, punchy, crunchy, and absolutely addicting lunches or simple sides.

this recipe

If a black bean quinoa salad had a winter version of itself (summer being one with cherry tomatoes, fresh sweet corn, or a cool and crunchy quinoa salad with cucumbers), this would be the quintessential one. Admittedly, it's a more involved recipe than I usually make, but I just adore the flavors and textures of each component. We get punchy flavors balanced with sweet and salty flavors, plus a delightfully tangy cumin orange vinaigrette that soaks into alllll the ingredients. Most addicting!

We'll use my shortcut for quick pickling the red onions (aka skip boiling the vinegar), roast up some tiny sweet potato cubes, make fluffy quinoa, and combine it all with fresh veggies and hearty black beans for a delicious and healthy quinoa salad experience. It's perfect for healthy lunch or dinner meal prep, and can also serve a crowd as a main course or side dish. Let's make it!

Key Ingredients

• Quinoa & black beans - These two ingredients are the bulk of this recipe. Any kind of quinoa can be used here!
• Sweet potato - Sweet potatoes are harvested in fall and last a while into the winter. Typically I roast sweet potatoes in larger cubes, but to go in this quinoa black bean salad, we'll cut the sweet potato into tiny cubes so that they cook quickly and are bite size in the salad.
• Kale - Kale is a hardy vegetable that can grow in cold seasons, so it's perfect to enjoy during winter months! Both lacinato and curly kale work great here. If you have some to use up after making this, try our easy chicken tortilla soup with kale!
• Red onion - Onions are another veggie that can withstand cold weather growing, and we'll be pickling them for the BEST punchy flavor.

Please see the recipe card for full ingredients + quantities.

If you love the combination of flavors in this recipe, you'll need to try these one pan vegetarian sweet potato + bean enchiladas next!

Substitutions & Variations

• Previously cooked ingredients - This recipe as written calls for dry quinoa, but feel free to use up leftover quinoa if you have it. You'll need 2 cups cooked. Also, you can use leftover roasted sweet potato cubes (or even roasted butternut squash cubes) or pickled red onions if you already have them on hand.
• Cheese - Cotija cheese or goat cheese can be used instead of feta.
• Protein - If you want extra protein, you could toss in leftover grilled chicken, roasted chicken, tempeh, hemp seeds, salmon, or even top with a jammy boiled egg or fried egg.
• Grains - If you don't have quinoa and still really want to make this salad, you could use farro, wheat berries, or oat groats as well.
• Dressing ingredients - Feel free to swap ¼ cup fresh orange juice for the freshly juiced clementine or orange. Adding in a squeeze of fresh lime juice is also delicious with the orange!
• Vegan - Omit feta or replace with a vegan feta.

How to Make This Black Bean Quinoa Salad

1. Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and start with pickling the red onions since those need some time to sit. First, boil some water in a tea kettle or pot on the stove. Slice a red onion into quarters and slice each quarter thinly crosswise. Stuff a jar with as many of the slices as possible, storing any extras separately for later. Top onions with salt and maple syrup. Once water has boiled, carefully pour it over the onions until the jar is halfway full. Fill the jar the rest of the way with apple cider vinegar, leaving a little room at the top. Push onions down to submerge, cover, and gently shake to mix ingredients. Uncover and set aside to cool and pickle.

2. Step 2: Roast the sweet potatoes. Dice the sweet potato up small (½-inch pieces or slightly smaller) and on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 20 minutes while you make the quinoa.

3. Step 3: Add quinoa to a medium pot with 2 cups of water and ¼ teaspoon salt. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer or low heat and cover. Cook quinoa for 15 minutes or until water is fully absorbed and quinoa is fluffy.

4. Step 4: Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette by adding the olive oil, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, juice from a clementine, and spices to a jar. Shake vigorously until emulsified, and set aside.

5. Step 5: Once the sweet potatoes and quinoa are done, place the kale in a large bowl and dump the hot quinoa and sweet potatoes right on top. This will steam the kale so it starts to break down, reducing bitterness and preparing to soak up all that vinaigrette. Let the quinoa cool in that bowl for about 10 minutes.

6. Step 6: Once the quinoa is cooled slightly (can still be warm), add black beans, feta, pepitas, pickled red onions, and finely chopped cilantro. Pour in the cumin orange vinaigrette and stir to coat everything. Serve immediately as a healthy side dish or meatless main dish!

Success Tips & Serving Notes

• Serving temperature. This salad is made with hardy fresh vegetables, so it doesn't wilt easily. Because of this, you can enjoy this salad served slightly warm, at room temperature, or cold!
• Useful tools. If you have these tools, they're super helpful in making this recipe! I use a sharp chef's knife or mandolin slicer for thinly slicing the red onions, a citrus juicer for getting ALL the juice out of the clementine or orange, and sometimes I even use a microplane for adding orange zest as well (not required, but very delicious). I also love our electric tea kettle (it's a gooseneck because we make pour over coffee) for boiling & easily pouring the water for the pickled red onions.
• Double batch. A quinoa salad like this one is a great potluck recipe for gatherings anytime of year, but I especially like it around Christmas and New Years. You can use the recipe card below to easily calculate the ingredient amounts for a double recipe if you plan to serve more people (just click '2x').

Quinoa Salad FAQs

Related Recipes

If you tried and loved this salad, you might like some of our other healthy whole grain salad recipes!

Did you make this quinoa black bean salad? Don't forget to leave a star rating 🌟 and comment below, and tag me on Instagram and Pinterest - I love seeing what you made!