Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Roasted Summer Vegetables
This fresh Mediterranean quinoa salad recipe features summer squash, tomatoes, eggplant, basil and mint! It's light, healthy and delicious.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 8, 2026
This Mediterranean-style quinoa salad is fresh, hearty and perfect for late summer. It features roasted eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash with raw cherry tomatoes—once combined, they offer a ratatouille vibe. Lemon juice, fresh basil and mint, toasted almonds and feta cheese round out this lively dish.
Make this beautiful recipe for dinner and enjoy the leftovers packed for lunch. They’re so good, I’ve even enjoyed them for breakfast! I promise that this salad is worth cranking up the oven for.
How to Make Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
You’ll find the full recipe at the bottom of the post. Here’s a brief preview, followed by an instructional video.
- Roast the eggplant and squash with olive oil across two sheet pans.
- Meanwhile, cook the quinoa and toast the almonds or pine nuts. Details for each component are provided.
- In a large serving bowl, whisk together lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Add the remaining ingredients (halved tomatoes, quinoa, basil, mint, vegetables and nuts).
- Season to taste with additional salt, pepper and lemon juice, and stir in the feta cheese if you’d like (I suggest adding the feta last so it doesn’t melt in contact with the warm ingredients).
Watch How to Make This Salad
I shared this recipe, originally from The Yellow Table: A Celebration of Everyday Gatherings, in 2015. I’m sharing it again today with updated photos and a few tweaks for bolder flavor and a larger yield, with little extra effort.
The recipe now calls for larger eggplant and squash, and I increased the baking time to ensure the vegetables have time to caramelize. I doubled the tomatoes and increased the lemon juice and herbs (you might as well use the whole container). Lastly, since I preferred sliced almonds to pine nuts here, I listed those first. Use whichever you prefer!
Make an End-of-Summer Feast
This dish is a well-balanced meal on its own. Here are a few more late summer recipes that would go well with this quinoa salad:
- Peach and Burrata Salad
- Kalamata White Bean Dip
- Socca or Panisses (Chickpea Fries) with Creamy Basil Sauce
- Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint
- Peach Crisp (Gluten-Free)
Please let me know how your salad turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you. I have more quinoa recipes for every season (don’t miss my favorite quinoa salad).
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Roasted Summer Vegetables
This fresh Mediterranean quinoa salad recipe features summer squash, tomatoes, eggplant, basil and mint! It’s light, healthy and delicious. Recipe yields 4 larger servings or 6 side servings. It makes for great leftovers, so feel free to double the recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound), diced
- 1 medium-to-large zucchini (about ½ pound), diced
- 1 medium-to-large yellow squash (about ½ pound), diced
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed (or 1 ½ cups cooked quinoa)
- 1 cup water
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste (about 1 medium lemon)
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes (quarter any larger tomatoes)
- ⅔ ounce fresh basil leaves, chopped (about ⅓ cup)
- ⅔ ounce fresh mint leaves, chopped (about ⅓ cup)
- ¼ cup sliced almonds or pine nuts
- ½ to ¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Divide the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash between the two baking sheets. Drizzle each baking sheet with 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss. (Add a little more if necessary; you want enough to lightly coat the vegetables.) Sprinkle each pan with ¼ teaspoon salt and 5 twists of pepper. Roast until the veggies are softened and browning along the edges, about 25 to 30 minutes. Set the roasted vegetables aside to cool.
- To cook the quinoa, combine the uncooked quinoa with 1 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes, then remove from heat and let the quinoa steam with the lid on for 5 minutes. Remove lid, fluff the quinoa with a fork and set aside.
- To toast the almonds or pine nuts, cook them in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they’re turning lightly golden and fragrant, about 4 to 8 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. Transfer them to a bowl to cool.
- In a large serving bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice and garlic. Slowly pour in the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil while whisking constantly. Add the tomatoes, quinoa, basil, mint, roasted vegetables and nuts, and gently stir to combine. Season generously with salt (I add another ¼ teaspoon or more), pepper and maybe another squeeze of lemon, to taste. Stir in the crumbled feta, if you’d like. Serve at room temperature. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
Recipe adapted from The Yellow Table by Anna Watson Carl. I revisited this recipe in 2025 and increased the amount of herbs and lemon juice, as well as increased the baking time for the vegetables to ensure proper browning.
Make it dairy free/vegan: Skip the feta and add some sliced, pitted Kalamata olives to make up for feta’s salty punch.
Make it nut free: Don’t use almonds. Technically, pine nuts are seeds, not nuts. If you’re sensitive to them, though, omit them!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Such a beautiful dish…
Greetings from Prague. I love your recipes, Kate and this one looks like another winner. I’m off to the market…!
Thank you, Pepper! :)
This recipe looks amazing. And your photos are gorgeous, as usual. Thank you for sharing :)
I have Anna’s book too and love that she just went for it and self-published! I’ve given thought to doing the same, but I’ll sit back and watch her do it for now :) Lovely salad dear Kate!
I will be making this the minute I get these vegetables. It looks fantastic! Thanks for posting.
Hope it turns out wonderfully, LaVette!
I love a good salad like this! So satisfying!
Yum this looks delish! I’m so impressed with your mom! It is so cool that she self-published a travel book- and how cool for you to get to go along for the ride! So inspiring. I’ll have to make this recipe soon. It’s been too long since my last quinoa party :)
xx Lane
Thanks, Lane! She’s an impressive lady, for sure. :)
Would it be okay to roast the tomatoes, too?
Yes, I think they’d be great! I might just leave them whole.
Thank you!
Because of this post and lovely looking salad, I found a fantastic new blog to follow! This salad looks so fresh and tasty, and I love the bowl you chose to display it in.
Thank you, Allyson! :)
Perfect salad to celebrate the summer before it ends! Anna is seriously awesome too, can’t wait to get my hands on her book!
Your salads are always so colorful and pretty! Such a great salad to take advantage of the abundance of late summer produce. I have more tomatoes that I can handle right now!
I am truly in awe of anyone who self-publishes…regular publishing sounds hard enough! Kudos to Anna and whooooaaa nelly! to this recipe! It is pretty much a celebration of everything I’m getting in my CSA lately, and what is there not to love about that?!
Looks like a perfect celebration of late summer vegetables! Love how healthy it is, and I can imagine how good all the herbs, pine nuts and feta would be with the roasted veges <3
Another delicious recipe from you. It’s tonight’s dinner in Geneva, Switzerland. Thank you Kate for giving me and my family so many fabulous meals! I love love love your posts.
Thank you so much, Laraba! That’s wonderful to hear.
Yay ! This looks and sounds fantastic. Today is the first day of Spring here in South Africa, so we are heading for warmer weather, and your salads are going to be divine. This Mediterranean Quinoa Salad I will be making for dinner tomorrow, can’t wait :-). Have a great day and give Cookie a big hug x
Oh boy, hope it turned out great for you!
Love everything about this salad… and beautiful photos as usual!!!
Yum! I am transitioning to vegetarianism and your blog came up in my search for vegetarian recipes. This looks delicious, I might even add some chickpeas to the mix as well.
Thanks, Rebecca! I’m glad you found my blog! Chickpeas would be great in here, for sure.
I love roasting veggies and tossing them into a salad. This mediterranean version sounds delish! :)
I am soooo making this! Please continue to share your yummilicious recipes!
Will do! Thank you. :)
My sister made this for us yesterday, but she added some jalapeño and spinach at the end – it was AMAZING. Thank you! Can’t wait to make it again.
Yay! Thanks for letting me know, Jessica.
Your mum sounds like an incredibly driven woman! I can imagine that it’d be pretty expensive to self-publish a book, too. The Yellow Table looks like a gorgeous volume, I had a flip through on Amazon and the laid-back, honest, generous style is inspiring. Love the recipe you sampled too. Yum!
Oh she is! Thanks, Laura!
This is another C & K recipe that I have made and we have loved. Delicious! Thank you again!
Hooray! Thanks, Marnie!
Love a good quinoa salad! Yum!
Made this for dinner tonight. I didn’t have pine nuts so I used sesame seeds. It was fantastic. I love the light, fresh dressings on your salads Kate and this was no exception. Another winner.
Thank you very much, Winnie!
I ate almost the whole thing! Winner! Keeper! Thank you!
Hooray! Thanks, Kathy!
Grand slam with this one Kate for end of summer veggies. My wife and I just loved it!
Hooray!
Every vegetable in this recipe had just also arrived in our CSA box, so this was perfect, especially with heirloom tomatoes! Added a red pepper and chickpeas and it was incredible. Thank you!!!
How perfect! Your garden-fresh version with chickpeas sounds fantastic. Thanks, Paula!
Prepared this today. I enjoyed watching hubby go in on this one. The best thing I could’ve done was sign up for your newsletters. I’ll keep trying recipes and commenting.
Easy and delicious. I can’t wait to prepare breakfast
Thank you so much! Please keep your comments coming.
This looks delicious! I have couscous on hand– Can I substitute it for the quinoa?
Hi Anna! Sorry for the late response, but yes! You’ll just need to cook it according to the package.
This was delicious! Absolutely delicious. I made this to take to work, and couldn’t wait for lunchtime. I’m already looking forward to making this again!
Thanks, Patricia! :)
Hi Kate, this looks delicious thanks for sharing your recipe!… I’m allergic to tomatoes, what could be a good substitute?
Hi Laura! I’d slice and roast a red bell pepper along with the other veggies.
My mom gave me some tomatoes from her garden last weekend. I made your recipe with them. It was colorful and delicious.
http://www.tativivelavie.com/2015/09/96-jeudi-photos-7-en-7-extra.html
Lovely photos, Kateri! Thank you for sharing!
I was skeptical about this recipe because it was so easy, but it was really refreshing and delicious! I ate leftovers for a few days and it was still good every time I had it.
I didn’t use pine nuts because they’re pretty expensive and the recipe only asked for a little bit but it could have definitely used a crunch. Do you have any recommendations for alternatives, Kate? Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it! Maybe sliced almonds would do?
That’s what I was thinking, too. I’ll try that!
I can’t even remember if I’ve already left a comment for this wonderful dish lol. Just want to keep telling everyone how heavenly it is! Thank you Kate x
Yay, thanks Sara! :)
Wow! Kate, I just made this on a whim and it is absolutely delicious. I was planning on serving it to my husband for dinner, but I’ve decided to save it for myself for lunches — it’s THAT good! :)
Yesss! Thanks, Alexa!
Hi Kate! If I do not have basil leaves, will it result in a great disparity in taste?
Hi Kylie! The basil does add quite a bit, but I think it would still be lovely without. You could replace it with chopped fresh parsley, if that’s an option for you!
Oh that was so delicious; using your recipe as inspiration just ate it for dinner. Didn’t have yellow squash but added green capsicum instead, also substituted the pine nuts with toasted flaked almonds, and used both kalamata olives and feta cheese. mmmmmmmmmm…
Happy Thanksgiving day America – greetings Kate from Australia.
Cheers, Pat
Thank you, Pat! Your version sounds great!
It’s a 41degreeday here in Melbourne and I can’t wait to make this for dinner tonight. Only found your blog 5 days again and so far have made 3 of your recipes (& had leftovers on the alternate evening). Thank you!! I have told my friends about how great your blog is.
Thank you so much, Sarah! Delighted to hear that you found my blog and enjoy my recipes. Thank you for taking the time to say hello!
For this recipe, what is a serving size? Equal to 1 cup?
Loved this recipe! I ended up adding a little more quinoa, around 2cups cooked. I will be making this again! Thanks for a great recipe!!
Hi Kate, thanks for this recipe, it sounds really good. If I want to take it with me to work but prepare it the night before, should I toss everything directly or take quinoa, vegetables and dressing seperately and toss before eating? Thank You!
The leftovers are great, so I would just mix them all together and pack for later!
Thank you for the recipe. It didn’t take too long to prepare and cook. The fresh mint and basil added a nice touch. I thought a little onion would be a nice addition. Not sure if a yellow or red onion would work best.
This came out delicious! Definitely adding it to my rotation, especially now that summer is rolling around for all of the squashes. I think I’ll double the amount of quinoa next time to stretch this dish a little further, and if the only problem is that there wasn’t enough of this dish then that’s a good problem!
This is such a tasty dish! Relatively easy to prepare, and saves well for leftovers. I will agree with other reviewers that you might want to add some quinoa if you really want to stretch this into a few meals. My goal with any dish I make is to fill my husband and me up for dinner and have enough for us each to eat it for lunch or dinner again the next day. We came up just a tad short on this one. Or, if you’re the occasional meat eater like me, this would be a great side to grilled chicken or shrimp for 4+ plates.
Bright, summery and delicious! My husband ate so much of it that next time I might double the recipe. ;)
Thanks for sharing this. I made a vegan variant of it that turned out great. No mint, basil, feta or pine nuts, but I added spinach (chopped into ribbons) along with finely chopped marinated green and kalamata olives, pickled peppers and roasted garlic. I just filled up a container at the olive bar at the supermarket, so it was easy to get those ingredients
I just made this and it’s Delicious! Thanks for another amazing recipe.
Amazing! the lemon juice and feta really add so much! The ability to mix + match roasted veggies is great. Thank you!!
Thanks, Anna!
Delicious. Glad we doubled it. Will quadruple it next time so we have more leftovers.
Thank you, Brooke!
Kate, this was absolutely delicious! This is the first vegetarian dish I’ve tried in a long while and it was a big hit with me and my husband. My only regret is that we didn’t make more! (we made a half portion). Thanks for posting this, and I’ll definitely check out more of your recipes.
Thanks, Rach! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and hope you enjoy my other recipes just as much.
This recipe is definitely a winner. Made it a number of times and it’s always a hit