This Salad Topper is an easy and delicious way to add a healthy crunch to your salads, soups and bowls. Versatile and fun to play around with, keep it simple or add your favorite seasonings. Vegan and Gluten Free.
The star of Salad Topper is crunchy quinoa! Simply toss cooked quinoa with olive oil and bake until toasty and crisp. Mix in your favorite seeds. From here, the possibilities are endless. Delicious as is or season it with your favorite spices.
Salad Topper adds the perfect crunch to salads, though don’t stop there! It also makes a delicious sprinkle on soups, buddha bowls, hummus, or morning yogurt giving a tasty texture and a little protein boost!
We love it on this beautiful Rainbow Salad!
Table of Contents
Ingredients In Salad Topper
Ingredient Notes
Quinoa- cooked and cooled, can make a day or two before baking. Use white, red or black quinoa. A mixture is nice for color.
Seeds- sunflower, hulled hemp, pumpkin, sesame – adjust to what you have on hand.
Tamari or Braggs– this is optional. You can use a little salt instead to keep the flavor neutral.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Salad Topper Tips
- This is a great way to use up leftover cooked quinoa.
- If making fresh quinoa for this recipe, it is important to let it cool completely, otherwise it will not crisp easily.
- Spreading the quinoa on two pans in single layers will help it dry out. When it is clumped on the pan it will just steam and not crisp up.
how to Make Salad Topper
First, make the crunchy quinoa. Toss cooked quinoa with olive oil and bake until crispy. This is delicious as is or season it with your favorite spices.
Mix sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hempseeds, sesame seeds with tamari soy sauce or Braggs Liquid Aminos. Spread onto a sheet pan and bake for 10 minutes. Cool.
After the seeds completely cool, mix with the crispy quinoa and store in an airtight container for up to a month.
Ways to Enhance
- Toast chopped nuts with the seeds.
- Add lemon zest, coriander and Aleppo or smoked paprika.
- Add mushroom powder.
- Add fennel seeds, sumac or za’atar.
- For a sweet twist add a little coconut sugar, cinnamon or 5 spice and orange zest.
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Salad Topper
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 1/2 cups
- Category: condiment
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Salad Topper is an easy and delicious way to add a tasty crunch to salads, soups & bowls. Versatile and fun to play around with, keep it simple or add your favorite seasonings. Made with toasted quinoa and seeds.
Ingredients
For the Crispy Quinoa
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the Seeds
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup hempseeds
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon tamari or braggs (optional)
Instructions
- Toss cooked quinoa (thoroughly cooled- see notes) with olive oil and salt. Spread onto two sheet pans in thin layers. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
- In a bowl, mix together sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hempseeds, sesame seeds with 1 tablespoon tamari or Braggs.
- Spread onto a sheet pan and bake for 10 minutes.
- After the seeds completely cool, mix with the crispy quinoa and store in an airtight container up to a month.
Notes
To Cook Quinoa: Add 1 cup of rinse quinoa to 1 3/4 cup of boiling water. Simmer low for 15 minutes covered. To cool quickly, spread out on a sheet pan and place in fridge for 1 hour or until chilled.
Optional Additions: Aleppo, mushroom powder, smoked paprika, pepper, lemon zest, zaatar, sumac, coriander, fennel
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 158
- Sugar: 0.1 g
- Sodium: 182.3 mg
- Fat: 10.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.7 g
- Fiber: 2.3 g
- Protein: 5.5 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This stuff is incredible. I put it on everything from salads to open-faced sandwiches to noodle dishes—adds an nice crunchy texture, flavor, and extra nutrition. Just excellent. Thanks for your great recipes Tonia!
So glad you gave it a try Jennifer! Thanks so much for the review.:)
This is amazing and so healthy! I know it’s a salad topper, but this is so good, who needs the salad part😂
I might keep a small jar on me to snack on during the day.
(I actually tripled the recipe so I could give some to my daughter and her fiancé!)
I am with you on this Stephanie! 😁
fantastic how long con they be stored
Question: couldn’t you just add the seeds to the quinoa at the 20 minute mark?
I think that would probably work fine as long as it doesn’t crowd or compress the quinoa- it needs it’s space to really dry out.
I’ve done this with the two batches I’ve made this far with no issues. For one batch I used 1/4c. of everything bagel seasoning in lieu of the sesame seeds and salt. This gave it onion and garlic bits which was delish 🙂
Made this yesterday to sprinkle on my lunch salad today. Ho boy! is it good. I tasted it before I put it on my salad and before I knew it I’d eaten three spoonfuls before I even put it on my salad. Tonight it’s going on your Thai Noodle Salad. Can’t wait.
Awesome to hear Chris! Oh ya- your not alone in eating it by the spoonful!