This Arugula Salad with Apples and Quinoa features crisp apple chunks on a bed of arugula and quinoa, topped with cheddar cheese, red onion, candied pepitas, and a creamy honey-mustard dressing. Delicious!
Looking for your new favorite fall salad? I have totally got you covered with this one. Inspired by the bins of apples crowding my farmers’ market, I created this new salad to highlight their bright flavor. Toss them with some fresh salad greens, like peppery arugula, and add quinoa to make this main course-worthy. Once you’ve got that, you can bring the fun—sharp cheddar cheese and candied pepitas. The pepitas do not take long to make, but add serious attitude to the dish. Top it all off with a honey-mustard dressing, and you’ll be wishing fall would last forever.
Why Make This Recipe
- Healthy, but delicious too: This salad is packed with good for you ingredients: fresh greens, apples, and quinoa, but the cheddar cheese and candied pepitas make this a dish you’re absolutely going to crave.
- Hearty enough for a main course: The addition of quinoa in this dish makes this salad plenty satisfying to eat for lunch or dinner.
- Delicious vegetarian meal: I am trying to reduce the amount of meat I eat and increase my consumption of plant-based and vegetarian meals. This arugula salad with apples has so many goodies packed into it that I am happy to add this to my list of vegetarian favorites. And it’s gluten-free too!
🥗 Ingredients
- Apples: I like to use a semi-tart apple for this dish, like Pink Lady, Gala, or Honey Crisp apples. But you can of course use whatever your favorite snacking apple is! I wouldn’t use apples that are meant only for baking.
- Quinoa: Feel free to leave out the quinoa if you prefer an arugula-only salad. Still absolutely delicious without it!
- Cheddar Cheese: A sharp cheddar is the best cheese for this salad—it pairs so beautifully with the apples. Look for “sharp” or “extra-sharp” bricks of cheddar at the grocery store. 1-2 year aged cheddar is the best fit for this dish—if you have cheddar aged over 5 years, it may be too crumbly to cut into chunks for this salad. Or, if you want to try a different cheese option, this arugula salad with apples would be delicious with goat cheese or blue cheese as well.
- Pepitas: In case you are unfamiliar with this ingredient, pepitas are pumpkin seeds that have had their white outer husks removed. They are high in fat but are packed with nutrients, protein, and fiber, making them a very healthy snack! If you don’t have pepitas, you can substitute candied nuts of any kind (pecans, walnuts, etc.) or even plain (not candied) nuts.
- Piment d’Espelette: Piment d’Espelette is a French chili pepper, grown mostly in the Basque region of France. It is a fairly mild pepper, but does add a little bit of heat to the chicken in this dish. You can substitute a mild chili powder or paprika (smoked or plain) if you don’t have piment d’Espelette.
🥣 Instructions
Begin by making the candied pepitas. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Add pepitas to a medium nonstick skillet set to medium-high heat, and toast for 3-5 minutes. Some of the seeds will brown a bit, and you’ll be able to smell a toasty scent. Careful not to burn them—turn down the heat if you smell burning instead of toasting.
Remove pepitas from skillet and set aside. Add sugar, butter, piment d’espelette, and salt to the warm pan. Turn down the heat to medium. Cook sugar and butter mixture until sugar melts and mixture is smooth, stirring frequently. This should take about 5 minutes.
Then quickly stir in pumpkin seeds, using a rubber spatula to try to coat each seed. Then pour seeds onto parchment lined-tray and spread into a single layer using the spatula.
Let cool, then break into chunks with your fingers. While candied pepitas are cooling, prepare the rest of your ingredients. Chop apples into ½-inch chunks, discarding the cores. Chop cheddar cheese into ½-inch chunks. Thinly slice red onion.
My favorite Healthy Honey Mustard Dressing is super easy to make by just whisking together ½ cup plain greek yogurt, 3 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, and 2 tablespoons olive oil, then seasoning with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. You could also try my Healthy Ranch Dressing or my Tahini Yogurt Dressing with this dish!
To assemble salad, toss together arugula, quinoa, apples, cheddar cheese, and red onion in a large bowl. Garnish with candied pepitas, and drizzle with honey mustard dressing.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
The most time-consuming ingredients in this recipe can easily be made ahead of time, but I recommend waiting until you’re ready to serve to finish preparing the salad. Cooked quinoa will last several days in the refrigerator, so you can make that in advance, along with the honey mustard dressing. The candied pepitas can also be made in advance and kept at room temperature for about 5 days. When you’re ready to serve, chop the apples and cheddar cheese, and put all the ingredients together. If you prepare your apples in advance, they may brown, which will taste fine but not look as delicious as freshly chopped apples!
Yes, you can easily make a vegan version of this recipe by not including the cheddar cheese, and using a vegan salad dressing (see below for dressing ideas). You’ll also want to replace the candied pepitas with simply toasted pepitas or nuts.
The key to a good salad apple is one that has a good crunch, and one that doesn’t brown immediately after chopping it. After that, the choice is yours. I prefer an apple that is tart but not too tart—for example, Pink Lady over Granny Smith. But it’s important to consider what else is in the salad—if you have a tart vinaigrette, for example, you may want to choose an apple on the sweeter side. If you’re using cheese in your salad, think about what type of apple would pair with that by itself.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
Starting with raw quinoa: There are many methods for cooking quinoa, and instructions often differ from package to package. While I usually recommend going by whatever your package tells you, I tend to ignore the packaged instructions with quinoa. I find that they usually tell you to simmer the quinoa in more water than you need. When quinoa absorbs that extra water, it gets stickier, and you'll find that it clumps easily. See my Quinoa Chickpea Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette recipe to find detailed instructions on how to cook quinoa yourself.
This salad calls for raw onions, which may have too much of a bite for some people. You can make the onion flavor more mild by soaking your red onion slices in ice water for 15-20 minutes. Then drain and add to your salad!
Other dressing and vinaigrette ideas: This salad is so delicious that you can pair it with all sorts of different kinds of dressings and still enjoy it. One of my favorite options besides this honey mustard dressing is to pair this arugula salad with my Apple Cider Vinegar Salad Dressing. It would also be delicious with my Meyer Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette. You could also just make a simple lemon juice + olive oil dressing and call it a day! Bonus of using a lemon-based dressing is that the lemon juice will help stop the browning of the apples if the salad sits for a while.
Other Salad and Vegetarian Recipes
If you enjoyed this Arugula Salad with Apples and Quinoa, you may want to check out more quinoa salads recipe, like my Quinoa Avocado Salad with Corn and my Quinoa Grain Bowl with Sesame-Ginger Dressing. My Vegan Buddha Bowl with Lemon Tahini Dressing, my Ramen Egg Rice Bowl, and my Warm Pearl Barley Grain Bowl are other delicious vegetarian grain bowl options.
If you’re looking for other salad recipes that can serve as a main course, you might enjoy one of these hearty and delicious salads:
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Arugula Salad with Apples
Ingredients
Candied Pepitas
- 1 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) (130g)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (67g)
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon piment d’Espelette or chili powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Arugula Salad
- 2 apples
- 4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
- ½ red onion
- 4 ounces arugula
- 2 cups pre-cooked quinoa (9 ounces)
Creamy Honey Mustard Dressing
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt (125g)
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Begin by making the candied pepitas. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Add pepitas to a medium nonstick skillet set to medium-high heat, and toast for 3-5 minutes. Some of the seeds will brown a bit, and you’ll be able to smell a toasty scent. Careful not to burn them—turn down the heat if you smell burning instead of toasting.
- Remove pepitas from skillet and set aside.
- Add sugar, butter, piment d’Espelette, and salt to the warm pan. Turn down the heat to medium.
- Cook sugar and butter mixture until sugar melts and mixture is smooth, stirring frequently. This should take about 5 minutes.
- Quickly stir in pumpkin seeds, using a rubber spatula to try to coat each seed.
- Pour seeds onto parchment lined-tray and spread into a single layer using the spatula.
- Let cool, then break into chunks with your fingers.
- While candied pepitas are cooling, make the salad dressing by whisking together all ingredients in a medium bowl. Taste and season with more salt and/or pepper if desired.
- Chop apples into ½-inch chunks, discarding the cores.
- Chop cheddar cheese into ½-inch chunks.
- Thinly slice red onion.
- To assemble salad, toss together arugula, quinoa, apples, cheddar cheese, and red onion in a large bowl.
- Garnish with candied pepitas, and drizzle with honey mustard dressing.
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Chef Mimi says
I love everything about this salad and the dressing. The flavors and textures are outstanding, and all perfect for fall.
Chef Molly says
Thank you! This is such a delicious salad--I can't get enough of it, especially while I have perfect apples!
Regina Bracho says
I have to confess I only dipped into your site this week and loved it. This is the very first thing I prepared and I loved it!!! So so good! I've shared your site with many friends down here, so if you see many people from Mexico checking it out, don't be surprised. Another friend tried your French Yogurt Cake today too. I think I'll be a fan and you got be cooking much fancier than I ever do regularly, as I almost just got back into cooking a year ago with the lockdown. Nice thing to bond with you too. I loved all the sustainable food approach, we cut out beef about 2 years ago for the same reasons. We do use pork though.. in case you get inspired to try things w that 😉
Chef Molly says
Hi Regina, lovely to hear from you! I'm so glad you liked this salad--it's so good, isn't it? I ate it for a couple of weeks straight when I was recipe testing, and never got sick of it! Keep me posted on how your cooking is going. I hope you find some other recipes you love too! Hugs to you!
Rebekah Naylor says
This salad is packed with so much flavor. I love the addition of quinoa which makes is filling and gives great depth of flavor. The aged cheddar and apple pairing is divine. And the crunchy pepita topping was simple to make and dangerously delish. My husband ate the leftovers all week long.
Bridget R says
Love this salad! I added grilled chicken which made it a filling and delicious dinner. All the tastes and textures made this an interesting, satisfying meal. Added the honey mustard dressing which was the cherry on top! The pepitas and couscous take a little prep work, but well worth it!
Chef Molly says
Ooh, love the idea of adding grilled chicken to this salad. A perfect meal!