Quinoa Beet Salad with Tuna

Quinoa Beet Salad with Tuna recipe. A delicious and filling protein-packed salad full of beets, beans, corn, quinoa, and tuna. Naturally dairy-free and gluten-free.

I’m all about flavorful unique healthy salads like this Quinoa Beet Salad. It’s full of texture, vitamins, antioxidants, and protein. Oh and it’s pink, which is an added bonus (thanks to the beets).

This beet and quinoa salad is great on it’s own, or added to a large mixed salad. It’s also a great dish to make as meal prep for the week.

Note: this recipe was originally published in 2017 and the recipe and photos were recently updated in February 2022.

When quinoa and tuna combine together, it becomes a protein powerhouse!

If you divide up this quinoa corn salad with beets and tuna into 10 servings, then each serving has 15.4 grams of protein.

I love salads with a lot of protein in them because then I am full for a while.

I also love incorporating quinoa into my diet because it is SO good for you. It is a complete protein. And it is actually a seed. Which makes it both gluten-free and grain-free.

Plus quinoa is known for being helpful to fight against inflammation.

Ingredients needed to make this quinoa beet salad:

• quinoa
• canned kidney beans
• canned corn
• canned tuna
• beets ( raw or boiled)
• mayonnaise
• mustard
• apple cider vinegar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• dried parsley
• dried basil
• garlic powder

How to make this tuna quinoa salad with beets:

Step 1: Boil the beets.

If you are going to boil the beets yourself, then slice up the raw beets, put them into a pot, and cover them with water. Then cook them until they are soft, like 25 minutes.

However, if you buy them already boiled or steamed, you can skip this step! ( I love the boiled beets that you can get at Trader Joes)

Once the beets have cooled, dice them up.

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Step 2: Cook the quinoa.

You can follow the instructions on your bag of quinoa, but I find that if you are cooking 1 cup of quinoa, it cooks great with 2 cups of water.

Note: make sure to rinse your quinoa before cooking it to make it more fluffy.

Step 3: Mix the tuna

Put the tuna into a large bowl and break it up into smaller pieces with a fork. Add the mayo and mustard to the bowl and mix it into the tuna.

Step 4: Make the dressing

In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, dried basil and dried parsley.

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Step 5: Mix

Add the quinoa, corn, beans, and beets to the bowl with the tuna and mix.

Then, add the dressing to the bowl and mix again.

Note: if you boil the beets yourself, then your salad will be pinker. You can see the difference between the two photos below. The first photo is with pre-steamed beets that I bought at Trader Joes and the second photo is with beets that I boiled myself.

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How to serve this beet and quinoa salad with tuna:

This salad is wonderful on it’s own in a bowl.

However, I love serving it on a plate with other veggies like shredded carrots or bell peppers to the salad.

I also love making a big salad with mixed greens and lots of veggies and adding a large scoop of this quinoa beet salad with tuna on top

You could also stuff bell peppers or tomatoes with this salad. This is my personal favorite.

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Other Quinoa recipes you may enjoy:

This Creamy Mushroom Quinoa Risotto is one of my favorites! You cook it like risotto and it tastes like risotto but it is made with quinoa!

This Curried Coconut Quinoa Bake by Salted Plains is exactly the type of flavorful quinoa dish that I love cooking and eating. So much flavor!!

Check out this Best Quinoa Salad Recipe by Meaningful Eats as a favorite “mom lunch” idea.