Quinoa Kale Tomato Corn Salad is light, healthy, and delicious. I love salads that can be enjoyed as main course salads when I’m looking for a satisfying, but light lunch or dinner.

Quinoa is a versatile grain (it’s actually a seed) that can be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be eaten in sweet or savory dishes, and can be served hot or cold.

If you’ve never cooked quinoa, check out my post How To Make Quinoa + Health Benefits and watch my video.

Today’s recipe was inspired by a quinoa salad and kale salad at a local restaurant called Baldanza. I love all the fresh offerings this place has to offer at lunchtime and the Mixed Bag Salad is definitely one of my favorites. There’s nothing fancy about this salad – it’s just made with really fresh ingredients, lemon juice and good olive oil. I’ve got a short video showing how to make this salad.

When I make salads, I think about the portion size that I want to eat of each vegetable. For example, for one serving, I eyeballed 1 cup cooked quinoa, 1 cup of chopped kale, 1/2 cup of chopped cherry tomatoes, and 1/4 cup corn.

Cheese is totally optional (for vegan version, leave it out, use vegan cheese or nutritional yeast). Just make sure you make the calories count and choose a really good cheese if you do use some. In this case, I used Sartori’s Family Heirloom Bellavitano cheese, which has been aged for 18 months. It’s a special release in celebration of Sartori’s 75th anniversary. If you can get your hands on this special cheese, I highly recommend it.

Watch my video to see how quickly this salad comes together:

