Grayce’s Copycat Yard House Red Quinoa Salad Bowl
Yard House made this video of their “Red Quinoa Salad Bowl” in 2016. They have since discontinued serving this salad… to Grayce’s dismay! So she, being the capable and adventurous cook that she is, decided she would make it herself. The salad ingredients were easy to duplicate. Unfortunately, the dressing for it, “Blood Orange Olive Oil Vinaigrette”, doesn’t appear to be published anywhere. But there are many recipes for blood orange vinaigrettes online to give you ideas.
Blood oranges are seasonal, December through April, and at this time most of the ones in the grocery stores in this area are very old and are drying up. I was fortunate to find some fresh ones to experiment with. The different varieties of blood oranges have lighter and darker flesh inside which will result in varying shades of pink to a pinkish brown color. I don’t recommend the very dark ones because they can be bitter. After trying Cara Cara navel oranges, I felt like any kind of sweet orange would be a good option for this recipe.
Grayce’s Copycat Yard House Red Quinoa Salad Bowl
For two 5 cup salads.
Ingredients
Adjust the amounts to your preferences.
- 2 cups cooked red quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups lightly packed kale leaves, torn into 1″ pieces
- 1 1/2 cups cauliflower florets
- 1 cup Brussels sprouts, quartered
- 12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 1/2 cups roasted red beets, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 1/2 cups roasted golden beets, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2/3 cup blueberries
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Hill Organic Pumpkin Seeds
- 1/3 cup feta cheese
- parsley
Instructions
To roast beets, scrub them and when they are dry, rub them all over with avocado oil and sprinkle them with salt. Wrap each one in foil, place them a baking sheet and bake in a 400° oven 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender. When cool enough to handle, peel them and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
Drizzle the pieces of kale with 1 teaspoon olive oil and massage the oil into the leaves with your fingers. This is so they will be tender.
If you have purchased a whole pomegranate, this video will show you how to open it.
Toss all the ingredients together. Divide into 2 large bowls. Drizzle each salad with half of the Orange Olive Oil Vinaigrette (recipe below).
Orange Olive Oil Vinaigrette
Divide this between the two salads.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup Bertolli or other light olive oil
- zest of one medium orange (about 2 teaspoons)
- 1/4 cup Cara Cara (light pink-orange flesh) navel orange juice or regular navel orange juice or Torocco (lighter flesh and the sweetest) blood orange juice
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey or agave
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger root
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Zesting as apposed to grating will avoid getting the white pith. Rather than a zester, use a microplane to zest the orange so you end up with small pieces.
Place all ingredients in a jar and shake until well blended.
