Quinoa Avocado Salad with Corn

This Quinoa Avocado Salad features quinoa tossed with chunks of creamy avocado, fresh corn, crumbled feta cheese, and a kicky cilantro-lime vinaigrette. Vegetarian and Gluten-Free! 

Why Make This Recipe

• Perfect vegetarian lunch! This recipe is a winner for the ongoing lunch dilemma. It’s filling enough that you won’t be hungry an hour after eating it, and it’s packed with good-for-you ingredients like avocado, corn, and quinoa. Leave out the crumbled feta cheese for a vegan version. 
• Main dish, side dish, or potluck dish. This quinoa salad recipe is perfect for all sorts of meals. Filling enough to be a main dish, but would also make a delicious side for some grilled fish or meat. Also makes a fantastic potluck dish, especially if you’re looking to add some vegetarian and/or gluten-free options to the spread. 
• Flexible with ingredient substitutions: This is a great base recipe that lends itself to substitutions and flavor combinations. Add black beans instead of corn, or cherry tomatoes instead of avocado chunks. See below for more substitution ideas. 

🥗 Ingredients

• Quinoa: You can easily make this into another kind of grain salad by replacing the quinoa with brown rice, farro, or another grain. Choose one where the grains don't stick together when cooked (for example, avoid using sticky white rice).
• Corn: Using canned or defrosted frozen corn is the easiest approach for this salad (and makes it doable year-round!), but if fresh corn is in season, feel free to use that instead. Instructions below in Expert Tips!
• Red Onion: You could substitute chopped green onions for the red onion, or chopped shallots. 
• Feta Cheese: Always buy feta cheese in brick form rather than pre-crumbled. Pre-crumbled feta is often quite dry and not as delicious as when you crumble it yourself. A good substitution for feta cheese is goat cheese. 
• Cilantro: For a different flavor profile, use fresh basil instead of cilantro. 

🥣 Instructions

Rinse 1 cup quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer. (This will help take the bitterness out of the quinoa’s outer coating.) Pour quinoa into a small saucepan with 1 ¾ cups of water and ½ teaspoon of salt. When the water comes to a boil, turn down the heat to medium-low, cover pot, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated. Let it sit for 5 minutes and then uncover it and fluff with a fork. 

Put quinoa into a large bowl and let cool to room temperature. Prep the rest of your ingredients by finely chopping half of a red onion and rinsing 1 cup of corn kernels (if using canned corn). Cut 2 avocados in half lengthwise around the pit, then make a cross-hatch pattern with your knife in the flesh. Scoop out the diced avocado. Chop 3 tablespoons of cilantro and squeeze your lime, if you haven’t already.

To make the vinaigrette, whisk together 2 tablespoons lime juice, ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and 2 tablespoons of cilantro.

To assemble the salad, add the vinaigrette to the bowl with the quinoa and stir. Stir in red onion and corn kernels.

Reserve some of the avocado chunks and feta crumbles to use as a garnish. Stir in the rest of the feta, then gently fold in the rest of the avocado.

To serve, scoop quinoa avocado salad onto plates or bowls and garnish with a few avocado chunks, feta crumbles, and cilantro. Squeeze a few lime wedges over it for extra flavor.

🧐 FAQs

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

In general, quinoa salads can be eaten hot or cold, but for this recipe, I prefer the cold version. That is why the instructions call for the quinoa to cool at least to room temperature. You can also refrigerate the quinoa to cool it off more quickly, or make it a day in advance and keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the salad. 

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. For this salad, you really want the grains as distinct as possible, so follow my instructions above for best results!

I love the cilantro-lime vinaigrette in this recipe, but this quinoa salad works with other salad dressings as well. Try my Healthy Honey Mustard Dressing, my Apple Cider Vinegar Salad Dressing, or my Meyer Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette. All would be delicious with this salad! 

If fresh corn is in season, it's fantastic in this salad. The easiest way to cook corn is in the microwave. Trim off the silk and leaves at the top of the ear of corn and pull off any loose pieces of husk. Then put the corn (still in its husk) on a plate in the microwave and microwave for around 4 minutes, depending on how large your ear of corn is. (If you are using 2 ears, add another 2-3 minutes to cook time.) Remove plate from microwave, and let corn rest for 5 minutes to cool down. When corn is cool enough to handle, peel back husk and remove corn silk. Stand ear of corn upright (upside-down) in large bowl, holding it by the husk. Then slice down with a chef's knife to remove the kernels.

Related Recipes

Love quinoa? Check out my Quinoa Chickpea Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette, my Quinoa Grain Bowl with Sesame-Ginger Dressing and my Arugula Salad with Apples and Quinoa.

My Vegan Buddha Bowl with Lemon Tahini Dressing, my Ramen Egg Rice Bowl, and my Warm Pearl Barley Grain Bowl are other great grain bowl options.

If you try this Quinoa Avocado Salad 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!

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