Easy and healthy Kale Quinoa Pomegranate Salad with citrus vinaigrette is a refreshing meal or beautiful side dish for any feast this holiday season! It’s packed with flavor, perfect for lunch or dinner, and ideal for easy meal prep!

This Kale Quinoa Pomegranate Salad is the real deal. It’s filled with a kaleidoscope of colorful and healthy ingredients and is so refreshing and light! It’s packed with flavor from the plump, juicy tangerines, pomegranate seeds, toasted almonds, fresh mint and snappy citrus based vinaigrette. And the best part is it’s super quick and easy to whip together!

Quinoa Pomegranate Salad with Kale and Tangerines

I literally ate this kale quinoa pomegranate salad for three days straight. And guess what? The flavors only got better with age! It is so easy to make and ideal for meal prep, lunch, dinner or really anytime of the day. This winter citrus quinoa kale salad really is the perfect holiday recipe and makes an excellent Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish.

This kale quinoa salad is wonderful because while it’s light and refreshing, it’s also loaded with antioxidants and complete protein so you feel totally full and satisfied afterwards. I love quinoa salads for this exact reason, because I never feel hungry afterwards. This kale quinoa pomegranate salad really is pure bliss in a bowl and will keep you on track with your healthy eating during the holidays!

Another one of my favorite quinoa salads that is full of protein and antioxidants is this Kale Blueberry Quinoa Salad with a Warm Onion Balsamic Vinaigrette! I love to make this one in the spring and summer when blueberries are in season. We go and pick buckets of blueberries at our local berry farms and this is definitely one of my first recipes I use them in every year!

How to Make Kale Quinoa Pomegranate Salad

This quinoa salad really is amazingly simple for how much flavor it brings to the table!

To make this Kale Quinoa Pomegranate Salad, simply prepare the quinoa according to the package directions, and then I let it cool while you prep the other ingredients, which are:

chopped and massaged kale
chopped and toasted almonds
sectioned tangerine slices
pomegranate seeds
chopped mint

To make the dressing simply whisk together the olive oil, tangerine juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the salad, toss, adjust salt to taste and you’re done! Easy, right?

Like I said, the flavors in this salad only get better with age, which makes for seriously good leftovers. However if you are making this kale and quinoa salad for more than 2-3 days out (meal prep) I would leave the dressing on the side and toss the night before or right before serving.

Health Benefits of Pomegranates

The antioxidant-rich pomegranates are one of my favorite parts of this salad. They add a bright burst of flavor as well as a nice textural element to the kale and quinoa salad. Plus, did you know this ruby red fruit is not only beautiful and delicious, but extremely healthy?!

Pomegranates are rich in polyphenols, which have been found to improve memory function. They also are know to reduce blood pressure and combat heart disease, hydrate skin, encourage hair growth, relieve rheumatoid arthritis, and promote bone health, among many other things. Wow! That’s a LOT of reasons right there to make this Kale Quinoa Pomegranate Salad today!

How to Easily Seed a Pomegranate

Now the really easy method if you are short on time is to just buy the containers of pre-seeded pomegranates. They sell them at every major grocery store October through January and really are a nice option when you are short on time. However, extracting the seeds from a whole pomegranate really can be quite easy. While there are many methods out there, my favorite technique is definitely using a spoon to bang on the outside of the skin release the seeds into a bowl. The steps are pretty simple.

Score around the outside of the pomegranate without breaking through (so you don’t cut the seeds).
Twist and pull the two halves apart.
Take one halve, hold it seeds facing down into a bowl.
Firmly tap the skin with wooden spoon, squeezing a little to release the seeds into the bowl.

There is an excellent video explaining this method on BBC Good Food that you can find here if you are a visual learner like me!

Holiday Side Dish Recipes

This winter citrus quinoa kale salad really is the perfect holiday recipe and makes an excellent Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish. First off, just look at how beautiful it is! It’s full of bright winter colors, big bold flavors, and adds a fresh and healthy element to complete any meal.

If you are looking for more holiday recipes to complete your Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts, check out these recipes below!

Quinoa Pomegranate Salad

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4.9 from 8 reviews

Author: Chelsey @ The Saucy Fig

Ingredients

Scale

Kale Quinoa Salad:

3 cups cooked quinoa
3 cups chopped and massaged kale
6 tangerines, peeled and sectioned
3/4 cup chopped toasted almonds
3/4 cup pomegranate seeds
3 tablespoons chopped mint

Citrus Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tangerine juice (about 3 tangerines)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
1/4 teaspoon pepper, more or less to taste

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Instructions

Prepare quinoa according to package directions.
Prepare the vinaigrette by adding all dressing ingredients to a small bowl and whisking well. Set aside.
Wash the kale, cut the stems out and chop to bite size pieces.
Place kale in a large bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and massage until tender and reduced in size.
Add the cooked and cooled quinoa to the bowl along with the sectioned tangerine slices, pomegranate seeds, toasted chopped almonds and chopped mint.
Toss the salad and drizzle the vinaigrette over the top. I usually start by pouring 3/4 of the dressing over the salad, mixing and then adding more dressing to preference.

Notes

*It’s very important that you add the salt to taste! I start with less and then add more after tasting the salad with the dressing.

*This salad makes excellent leftovers! If planning on serving for more than 2 days, keep the dressing on the side.

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