One of my main contributions to our Thanksgiving feast this year was a delicious vegan Quinoa Salad with pecans and cranberries.
This dish first made its debut at our wedding! Back when we first met with our caterer (Celebrations Catering) a year ago to figure out our reception menu, I mentioned that I’d like to have some sort of vegan quinoa salad on the buffet line – fall inspired, with nuts and dried cranberries. They said they would see what they could do, and at our wedding food tasting back in March we got our first taste of what they had come up with for us.
It was delicious, and proved to be an even bigger hit on the big day at our wedding. I had so many guests asking for the recipe that I emailed our caterer and asked if they’d let me share it here on the blog. The day before Thanksgiving, they sent it over, plus the photo below of me hitting the buffet line hard. 
(I know I still owe you the rest of my wedding recap posts – they’re coming soon!)
When I made the recipe for Thanksgiving it was just as delicious as we all remembered. So, without further ado and by popular demand – enjoy the recipe!
Celebrations Quinoa Salad with Pecans and Cranberries
Serves 4 as a side dish, 2 as an entrée.
This vegan recipe is delicious and really easy to make, too. It was originally created by Celebrations Catering for our wedding reception and it was such a hit they agreed to let me share it with all of you! Enjoy.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dry quinoa
- 1 & 1/2 cups vegetable stock/broth (low sodium if possible)
- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
- 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 large lemon’s worth)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
Directions:
- Place quinoa in medium sauce pot with the vegetable stock/broth.
- Cover the pot, bring to a full boil, then reduce to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Combine all other ingredients in a bowl. Pour on top of quinoa and mix together.
- Serve immediately or cover and chill in the fridge. Enjoy!
*Notes: For simplicity (and based on what we had on hand), I left out a couple of the ingredients that our caterer included in the original recipe. Things I left out are: 2 Tbsp. chopped green onions, 1/4 tsp granulated garlic, 1/4 tsp granulated onion, and a pinch of ground cayenne pepper. Feel free to add these back in – it was just as delicious without them, though! Also, in the original recipe the pecans were roasted and spiced. Plain pecans worked just as well, but spiced pecans were definitely an added bonus if you have some on hand.
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