Edamame Quinoa Salad with Peanut Ginger Lime Dressing

This nutritious Edamame Quinoa Salad with Peanut Ginger Lime Dressing is a flavorful, hearty salad that is easy to make and can be enjoyed as a side dish or main dish. The quinoa and edamame are tossed with shredded carrots and red cabbage, a homemade peanut ginger lime dressing, and topped with agave lime roasted cashews. This gluten-free, vegan salad is a great source of plant-based protein and dietary fiber perfect for a nourishing lunch, a filling dinner, or as a side at your next cookout summer potluck!

Theres nothing like a nourishing colorful salad to make you feel good 🌈. I had a bag of frozen edamame in my freezer that I needed to use up, along with some red cabbage that I had already chopped, so it seemed like this salad needed to happen. And the peanut lime dressing? Yum! So good👌🏻. Let’s dive in!

What is Edamame?

Edamame are little soybeans, that grow inside green fibrous pods. Essentially, edamame and soy are the same thing, as in they grow on the same plant and are both legumes, however, edamame is harvested while they are still young. Soy beans are used at their mature harvest date to make tofu, soy milk, and other soy-based foods.

How To Cook Edamame

Generally, you steam edamame in the pods and eat the little beans out of the pods. You may have seen edamame on the menu at your favorite Japanese restaurant, and if you’ve ordered it, you know the appetizer comes in their whole bean pods, usually salted, and you eat the little green beans out of the pods. They are soft and tender, unlike mature soybeans, which are hard- like other dry beans, and take a while to cook.

You can also buy edamame beans frozen, in the pod or out of the pod and cook them at home, like we’re doing in this edamame quinoa salad. When you purchase shelled edamame in the freezer section at the grocery store, it’s often called mukimame. To cook store-bought shelled edamame (mukimame) you can steam, boil or microwave in the bag for convenience.

Popular Dishes Made With Edamame

Aside from enjoying edamame as a snack or appetizer, you can add edamame beans to salads, stir-fry recipes, soups, grain bowls, curry, and even blend them up to make edamame hummus (which is delicious!).

Some Of My Recipes Using Edamame

My kids even love to enjoy this crunchy edamame bean snack as a high protein snack at school!

What is Quinoa?

Quinoa has gained a lot of popularity as a replacement for rice in recipes, despite it not being a true grain. That’s right! Quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain, making it a great choice for a grain-free diet. It is also gluten-free and considered a superfood because it contains a good amount of plant-based protein, containing all nine essential amino acids making it a complete protein made from plants! Quinoa is also a great source of fiber, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, folate, and thiamin (vitamin B1). It also is a low-glycemic option.

You can buy quinoa in most supermarkets and it comes in various colors including, tricolor, white, yellow, red, and even black, which I have yet to find and try 🤗.

How To Cook Quinoa

Quinoa is cooked similarly to rice- using two parts liquid, one part dry quinoa. You can cook quinoa in water, broth, or vegetable stock.

Some packaged quinoa is pre-rinsed, but others are not and it’s recommended you rinse and drain the quinoa prior to cooking to remove any of the natural “pesticide”, known as saponins, that the plant produces on its own. This will help the quinoa have a less bitter taste as well.

Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, add the dry quinoa, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Cook until the liquid is absorbed and it’s tender. You can add your preferred spices and seasonings and enjoy as you would rice or in a delicious quinoa salad, like this Edamame Quinoa Salad with Peanut Ginger Lime Dressing 😋.

You can also make quinoa in your instant pot too, making weeknight dinner’s a breeze! Leftover quinoa is good to have on hand for weeknights when you’re a little pressed for time, I like to cook it ahead of time and keep it in an airtight container stored in the fridge. Then just warm it up and serve.

Ways To Use Quinoa

Quinoa can be used in a variety of ways other than just as a replacement for a side of rice, such as in soups, grain bowls, stir-fry, and tacos. You can find quinoa pasta and orzo, making it a great low-glycemic, high protein and fiber pasta option, an alternative to chickpea pasta. I’ve used quinoa in breakfast recipes as well as desserts! You can even buy crispy puffed quinoa and eat it as cereal or replace it for Rice Krispies in your favorite crispy rice desserts.

Savory Recipes Using Quinoa

Breakfast Recipes Using Quinoa

Dessert Recipes Using Quinoa

Salad Ingredients

Edamame. For this edamame salad recipe we will be using frozen edamame, which you should be able to find available in the freezer section with the frozen veggies at your local grocery store.

Quinoa. I am using pre-rinsed traditional quinoa in this recipe, but feel free to use another type of quinoa if you’d like!

Red cabbage. If you can find pre-shredded red cabbage at the supermarket, that will save you a little prep work time for this recipe, but if not, it’s easy to cut a whole head of red cabbage.

Carrots. I like to buy shredded carrots for ease of use in this quinoa salad recipe. But you can chop, shred, slice the carrots in whatever shape you’d like.

Roasted cashews. Toss raw cashews with agave syrup and lime zest and roast in the oven until crispy for the perfect crispy topping to this edamame quinoa salad!

Green onion. Adding sliced green onion at the end gives this edamame quinoa salad the perfect final touch.

The Peanut Ginger Lime Dressing

Peanut butter. I like to use natural creamy peanut butter in this dressing, the kind of peanut butter that is just peanuts- and no palm oil, salt, or other added ingredients.

Tamari soy sauce/liquid aminos. Make sure you use gluten-free soy sauce- which is the Tamari or you can use liquid aminos.

Lime juice. I used bottled lime juice for ease, but you can surely use freshly squeezed lime juice too.

Minced garlic. I buy bottled, pre-minced organic garlic for ease, but feel free to mince your own garlic.

Ginger. For this recipe I am using 1 frozen ginger cube. I find it to have more flavor and taste fresher than dry ground ginger, but if you don’t have fresh/frozen ginger, you can use ground ginger. Start with 1/4 teaspoon and add more to taste as desired.

Agave syrup. The agave syrup brings just a tad of sweetness to the ginger peanut dressing. Feel free to use maple syrup instead or you can omit altogether if desired.

Sesame oil. Sesame oil pairs well with the Asian-inspired flavors of this salad, but if you want to use olive oil, or another oil of choice instead that would be fine.

How To Cut Red Cabbage

How To Make This Salad

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Add 1 cup of raw, unsalted cashews into a medium bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of agave syrup, and grate the zest of 1 lime into the bowl, about 1 tablespoon’s worth of zest. Toss to combine coating the cashews with the syrup. Place the cashews on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer and roast in the oven until golden, about 10-12 minutes. Set aside- they will crisp up as they cool.

Next, cook the quinoa according to package directions. For this edamame salad recipe, you’ll need ½ cup of dry quinoa cooked in 1½ cups of water.

While the quinoa is cooking, cook the edamame according to package directions. When it’s done, add it to a large bowl.

Next, add the cooked quinoa to the bowl. Toss the edamame and quinoa together and allow them to cool for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the peanut ginger lime dressing, simply combine all of the dressing ingredients together in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Add the chopped/shredded red cabbage to the bowl along with the shredded carrots.

Then pour the dressing over the salad.

Toss to combine.

Top with agave lime roasted cashews and serve immediately.

**NOTE: I know the images show to add the cashews into the salad and toss with the rest of the ingredients, but after enjoying this salad I determined that it would be much better to add the roasted cashews on top as a garnish AFTER serving.

This salad is meant to be enjoyed at room temperature, but it tastes good chilled too. If you’re making this edamame quinoa salad for a picnic or a party, you can make it ahead of time, keep it covered and stored at room temperature and then add the roasted cashews right before serving to keep them crunchy. I also suggest reserving some of the dressing and tossing that in right before serving.

Store any leftover salad in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within a couple of days.

Optional Add-Ins

This salad is delicious served with plant-based chicken nuggets! You can serve alongside the salad or chop them up and toss in the salad.

You could also top this salad with crispy tofu 😋.

I hope you love this Edamame Quinoa Salad with Peanut Ginger Lime Dressing recipe! Let me know what you think down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a five star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others can discover this healthy, nourishing salad recipe! Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!

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