I’m a bit late for the cherry season, but if you can still find some, make this salad. Cherry Pistachio Rice Quinoa Salad is a simple but flavorful light, refreshing salad. Perfect for a light lunch or a delicious side to any meal.
After being on this earth for XXX number of years….no, I’m not telling! I had never in my life just eaten a cherry??? How did that happen?? My only answer is that I bartended for many years. If I had a nickel for every maraschino cherry, I slid on to a pick and dropped into a drink I would be a millionaire. I never cared for them, they were way too sweet.
Real cherries are nothing like that. They are delicious!! In the past, I have made a couple of recipes using cherries here at What the Forks for Dinner. Cherry Almond Quick Bread is a simple and easy, quick bread.
Cherry Pistachio Sweet Rolls were beyond delicious and pretty easy to make. Head over to the recipe here.
After making the sweet rolls, I had cherries and pistachios leftover. What to do, what to do??? After all, that sweetness, how about something savory-ish?
One of my hidden talents is that I can look at a handful of ingredients, and ta-da a recipe is born. I’ve been doing it since High School. Makes for cleaning out the frig or pantry easy for me. So the leftover ingredients were in my wheel-house.
Now I will admit I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest as well, who doesn’t these days? After seeing a few salads and different recipes, I decided salad was the way to go.
When I made this recipe, we were in the middle of a heatwave. A light salad was just the ticket.
The folks at Minute Rice has this great rice-quinoa mix with brown, red, and wild rice mixed with quinoa. It’s delicious and ready in 10 minutes. Bonus, its the perfect size for this salad.
The cooled rice-quinoa mixture, lump, juicy, cherries, baby spinach, pistachios, and mint makes a light, fresh salad. Dress with an apple cider vinaigrette, and you have the perfect, light, easy salad. That’s ready in a flash.
Cherry Pistachio Rice Quinoa Salad an excellent side dish salad or a great easy work lunch take-along.
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Cherry Pistachio Rice Quinoa Salad
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 package Minute Rice Rice & Quinoa mix prepared according to package directions and cooled
2 cups cherries, seeded and sliced in half
1 cup baby spinach, thinly sliced
1 small shallot, minced
1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1/4 cup chopped mint
Dressing
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon shallot, minced
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
In a large bowl add the cooked rice & quinoa, cherries, spinach, pistachios, shallot, and mint.
In a jar with a tight-fitting lid or a blender add olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. Shake well to emulsify all ingredients.
Pour dressing over salad and toss well to combine. Garnish with extra mint if desired.
Serve at room temperature or chilled.
