This easy quinoa salad is loaded with oven-roasted acorn squash, chickpeas, spinach, and tangy goat cheese. This flavourful salad can be made ahead of time and served as a main, or as a side dish with fish or chicken.
Humm yes, another quinoa salad. Second one in a month. Seems like I'm in a quinoa phase. Funny when you think that I used to hate it. But it was a long time ago and now I'm in love.
And I'm even more in love now that I've learned that you can freeze it. I don't know, maybe it's obvious but I didn't realize quinoa was freezer-friendly.
So I made a huge batch of this Bondi Harvest Quinoa Salad loaded with Squash, Chickpeas, Spinach, and crumbs of tangy Goat Cheese.
I think Solal got a bit scared that I would force-feed it to him. I still need to do a bit of convincing on this husband of mine. Quinoa is not yet his thing but I'm working on it.
Eventually, I won't have to eat my quinoa salad alone. A girl can dream.
This healthy easy quinoa salad is a little piece of Sydney brought into my new Canadian home. I used to have it at this delicious place called Bondi Harvest, located – you guessed it – in Bondi Junction, Sydney.
I highly recommend it if you're a lucky local. Here's their website. The first time I tasted it I was like "humm this is amazing" but I was too busy chatting with my girlfriend to give it too much thought (but I still documented it on Instagram, obviously).
So I came back to this Bondi Harvest quinoa salad to study it properly. If you saw a weirdo staring at her plate, separating all the ingredients, well...that was me. It's a food blogger thing.
We're a strange species. I took notes (yes, for real) and made it my mission to recreate it at home. And TADA! Here's my version of Sydney's Bondi Harvest Quinoa Salad!
The list of ingredients looks a bit intimidating but this is actually an easy quinoa salad recipe. You have a few ingredients to cook separately but they can all be prepared at the same time.
One in the oven, two on the stove. And if you prepare some of the salad ingredients ahead of time, well, it's even quicker.
This Bondi Harvest Quinoa Salad is also a great recipe for meal prep! Make a big batch and portion is out in Tupperware and you will be looking forward to lunch hour every day!
Enjoy!
If you tried this easy Quinoa Salad recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe below and let me know how it went in the comments – I love hearing from you! You can also follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook for more deliciousness and behind-the-scenes!

Bondi Harvest Quinoa Salad
This quinoa salad is loaded with oven-roasted acorn squash, chickpeas, spinach, and tangy goat cheese. This flavourful and comforting quinoa salad can be served alone as a main course, or as a side dish with pan-seared fish or chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 acorn squash or your favorite kind of squash
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt + pepper
- 1 ½ tbsp roasted pumpkin seeds aka pepita see recipe if you only have raw pumpkin seeds
- 4 cups cooked quinoa about 2 cups uncooked
- ¼ onion sliced thinly
- ¾ cup packed baby spinach
- ¼ cup chickpeas drained and rinsed
- ⅔ cup goat cheese crumbled (I used an herb and garlic goat cheese)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400F - 200C.
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Chop off the top of the acorn squash with a large and sharp knife, then cut it into 3 to 4 1-inch (2.5 cm) slices. Arrange them on a baking sheet, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and season with salt and black pepper.
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Roast for about 20 minutes or until very soft. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the skin from each slice (it should come off very easily) and cut into cubes.
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If using raw pumpkin seeds, keep the oven on, arrange them on the same baking sheet and roast them for 1 to 2 minutes. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn, they will be ready very quickly!
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If you don't have cooked quinoa, prepare it while the squash is roasting. Place quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer and rinse thoroughly with cool water for at least 2 minutes. Drain. Rinsing quinoa before cooking will remove its natural bitter or soapy taste.
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Transfer to a medium saucepan, cover with stock, cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes on the lowest setting. Turn off the heat and let stand covered for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and set aside to cool.
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While the squash is roasting, prepare the onions. In a small skillet, cook the onion on low heat with a little bit of olive oil until very tender.
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In a salad bowl, combine cooked quinoa, roasted squash, pumpkin seeds, cooked onions, spinach, chickpeas, and goat cheese. Drizzle with two tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
40A.
Roasted squash and goat cheese are one of my all-time-favorite combinations! Paired with high-protein quinoa? Even better!