A healthy, light, and flavourful butternut squash and quinoa mason jar salad with arugula and pine nuts.
Let’s start the year with a healthy and delicious take away lunch. It’s a simple and beautiful salad, which helps you fulfill all your Instagram and Pinterest dreams. Because there is nothing cooler than a mason jar salad, right? Yes, this salad is definitely Instagram worthy, but it’s also so much more. It’s filling and satisfying and just a little vegan salad heaven. It’s so good and so stupidly easy. And a STAPLE RECIPE in our lives.
Hey babes, how are you doing with your new year’s resolutions? I don’t really believe in the whole concept of new year’s resolutions as they tend to be always unrealistic and kind of set you up to fail, but I can’t deny that I love the concept of a new start. A new healthier start. Right? I was pretty proud of myself last year, I ate a lot of healthy food and just a teeny tiny vegan junk food all year around, but then came the Christmas time and I indulged in fatty food and alcohol. So now I have to get back on track and eat well again. Overfed, hungover little Evi.
This butternut squash and quinoa mason jar salad is a great recipe for this season. It’s not one of those plain and boring salads you eat to punish yourself for all the bad foods. No, it’s an exciting, vibrant and fresh one that just makes you so so so sooooo happy.
My love of quinoa salads takes many forms on the blog. Check out some of these recipes if you need more healthy inspirations:
- Quinoa, Pumpkin and Kale Salad with Tempeh (my favourite!!!)
- Quinoa Salad with Mango and Spinach
- Massaged Kale Salad with Quinoa
- Quinoa Bowl with Sun-Dried Tomato and Tahini Dressing
- Green Quinoa Bowl with Asparagus and Zucchini
- Quinoa and Sweet Potato Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing
- Sweet Potato Salad with Quinoa and Pine Nuts
- Cauliflower Quinoa Salad
Butternut Squash and Quinoa Mason Jar Salad
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 2 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 small butternut squash
- 2/3 cup of cooked quinoa (or about 1/4 cup of dry quinoa)
- 6–8 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2 cups of arugula
- 1 purple onion, thinly sliced
- handful of pine nuts
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 limes, juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt, pepper
Instructions
- Peel butternut squash and cut into bite-sized pieces. Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer, season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 200°C/400°F, until squash is tender and lightly browned. Let them cool a bit.
- Meanwhile mix together tahini, olive oil, lime juice and pepper for the dressing.
- Assemble salads in 2 mason jars. Add dressing first, then butternut squash cubes, quinoa,
- tomatoes, onions, pine nuts and arugula on top. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: Vegan
That’s so pretty too! Your photos are gorgeous!! I need to amp up my Mason Jar game 😉
Thank you so much ♥︎
This salad would definitely make me happy!
So many of my fav things packed into one cute jar, I love it!
Thank you, Cara 🙂
I don’t believe in resolutions either but it’s wonderful to start the new year off right – love this salad 🙂 So Insta-worthy yeah, haha
Thank you 🙂
This looks delicious and I’m not a big fan of resolutions, either. I love that this is in a portable mason jar, perfect for taking to work!
Thanks, Molly 🙂
Such pretty pretty salads! I am also a huge fan on quinoa- so many things you can do with it, but I love adding it to my salads for an extra protein boost. Happy new year!
Thanks, Genevieve! Happy new year you too ♥︎
YUM! This looks amazing!! What a great recipe! Thanks for sharing. Also, I totally agree. I don’t believe in resolutions, but rather prefer goals!! Just wrote a post about it! 🙂 Heres to a healthy, happy, balanced 2016!
Thank you, Cailee! 🙂
Juice of 2 limes, or 2 T or, 2 t lime juice?
Hi Shanda,
Sorry that I wasn’t clear enough! I used two whole limes here, but feel free to use a bit less 😉
I hope you’ll like the salad, let me know how it turned out!