Low FODMAP Kale Quinoa Salad with Blueberries, Green Beans, Feta & Pecans
This salad has it all going for it. The title says it all: Kale Quinoa Salad with Blueberries, Feta & Pecans. I served this at my wedding and believe me, no one knew it was a special diet food.
Get Your Grains & Greens
The combo of protein-packed quinoa with fresh raw kale combined with juicy sweet-tart blueberries, crunchy pecans, crisp-cooked green beans, the creamy saltiness of feta and toasted pecans gets even better when dressed with a mustardy vinaigrette.
I love to take this salad to potlucks because I know that even if I end up not being able to eat anything else, that this satisfies in terms of filling me up, offering nutrition and tasting really, really good.
Some Recipe Notes:
- While the recipe calls for red wine vinegar, we often make it with sherry vinegar, which has not been tested yet by Monash but we have tolerated it well. Try it for yourself and see.
- We also like to use half Dijon mustard and half coarse ground mustard.
- We like to make this with a mix of green curly, Lacinato and Red Russian kale, but you can use just one kind as per the Monash app, which shows Lacinato in the image.
- The maple syrup adds a hint of sweetness to offset the slightly bitter kale.
When we made this for 100 people at the wedding we broke the recipe down as follows:
- Dressing was made 3 days ahead and refrigerated.
- Pecans toasted 2 days ahead and stored airtight at room temperature.
- Kale washed and chopped 1 day ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container.
- Quinoa cooked and cooled, green beans cooked and cooled, feta cubed all tossed with blueberries and refrigerated together in an airtight container.
- Day of serving we tossed everything together 4 hours ahead. Perfect!
Low FODMAP Kale Quinoa Salad with Blueberries, Green Beans, Feta & Pecans
This salad has it all: veggies, fruit and protein. The perfect low FODMAP dish to bring to a party!
Low FODMAP Serving Size Info: Makes about 7 to 8 cups of salad (1.7 L to 2 L); serving size up to 1 cup (240 ml)
Ingredients:
Vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Salad:
- 1 1/2 cups (230 g) cooked quinoa, any color
- 5 ounces (140 g) fresh Lacinato kale
- 6 ounces (170 g) green beans, stem ends trimmed, cut into large bite sized pieces
- 1 cup (170 g) fresh blueberries
- 2/3 cup (65 g) toasted pecan halves, chopped
- 8 ounces (225 g) feta, preferably firm that can be cubed
Preparation:
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For the Dressing: Whisk together oil, vinegar, both mustards and maple syrup in a small bowl or shake together in a covered jar. Taste and season with salt and pepper; set aside.
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For the Salad: Have the quinoa cooked, or start with ½ cup of raw quinoa and follow our instructions for cooking quinoa. Cool completely and set aside.
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Wash the kale leaves well and remove any thick, tough ribs; pat dry. Chop very finely, preferably in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse the processor on and off until it reaches a fine texture, using the image for guidance. Measure out and pour 4 cups into a large mixing bowl; any extra can be used for another salad or smoothies. Add the cooled cooked quinoa to the kale.
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Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil and plunge in the green beans. Cook for only a few minutes, just until crisp tender and still bright green. Drain and run under very cold water to cease cooking. Drain again and pat dry. Toss into bowl of kale.
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Add blueberries, pecans and cubed feta to bowl and gently toss all together. Dress lightly with vinaigrette; you might have extra leftover. Salad is ready to serve and also keeps pretty well, even with vinaigrette, for 2 days although it loses a bit of its freshness. Any extra can be refrigerated in an airtight container. If you know you will not be serving it all, leave it undressed and dress right before serving.
Notes:
Tips
- Trust me when I tell you that this salad DOES keep in the fridge - which is a boon for weekday lunch needs!
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more. For a more detailed explanation, please read our article Understanding The Nutrition Panel Within Our Recipes.
For more blueberry inspiration, check out our round-up of many of our favorite blueberry recipes.
Hi, I was just wondering if I could swap out the kale for spinach instead and possibly the feta for a cheddar if I find that I don’t like it. I’ve never been a salad eater so the fact that this recipe has even got me considering it is a big step in the right direction hopefully, Thank You 🙂
Joanne, I hear you! If you are not a big salad (or greens) eater, a kale salad might be a Huge step. The answer to your questions is yes, with caveats. Kale and spinach have different amounts of FODMAPs per serving; the cheeses are the same. They all DO have low FODAMP serving size amounts. The best thing for you figuring out the substitutions for this recipe – and in general – would be for you to get the Monash University Low FODMAP Diet smartphone app and then the lab-tested values will be at your fingertips.
Hi Dede,
Thank you very much for your quick reply, I’m sorry for my very slow reply but I forgot I’d actually left the above comment until I just re-read it, lol. I have the Monash Smartphone App so I’ll sit down and have a look at the amounts. I might possibly try swapping some of the Kale so that it’s not all or nothing…
Sounds like a plan! Enjoy.
Can you leave the quinoa out and do approx 9oz of kale?
You could but it would be very different. When you tweak recipes you do have to recalculate FODMAPs. How do you do with kale?
This was delicious! I made it as written except I ran out of feta so I had to use 1/3 queso, and I used raspberry vinegar instead of red wine vinegar.
Hi there! I made this myself this week and used sliced almonds. I love your vinegar tweak! Thank you so much for letting us know you enjoyed it.