December 15, 2020

Moroccan Salad with Tahini Dressing

This Moroccan Salad combines raisins and crunchy almonds with quinoa, chickpeas, spinach, capers and a creamy tahini dressing.

A spiced quinoa chickpea salad with dried fruit

I love the addition of dried fruit and nuts to any dish – the sweet chew and toasted crunch combination is one of my very favs.

This salad combines raisins, almonds and chickpeas with quinoa, spinach, capers and a tahini dressing. Bell peppers add more colorful nutrients. And a pinch of cinnamon brings a warming spice to the whole salad!

Moroccan Salad with Tahini Dressing: Step x Step

Ingredients

Quinoa

I like red quinoa more than yellow, as I think it’s prettier and has a slightly nuttier flavor. But use what’s in your pantry – or sub in any grain you like!

Did you know you can cook quinoa in a rice cooker? Set it and forget it. We have a Zorirushi rice cooker and LOVE it for all things grains. I add some salt and use a 2:1 water to quinoa ratio and put it on quick cook for perfectly fluffy quinoa.

Chickpeas

Are you team garbanzo bean or team chickpea? One time I put garbanzos on the grocery list and Thomas had no clue what to get! I like chickpea in general.

You can sub any beans you like here for some protein, or even add chopped chicken. Lentils would be nice too!

Spinach

If you’re serving the salad immediately, go ahead and add it now. Otherwise, you might want to save it to add later. You could also use kale which would hold up in the fridge better the next day, or finely chop the spinach and allow it to wilt a bit overnight.

Almonds

Roasting the almonds is key, so don’t skip this step! Use slivered, pre-chopped, or whole chopped.

Capers

What do capers taste like? A little like an olive met a permanent marker – haha! I love the extra bite they add to the salad, but you can leave them out if you’re not a fan.

Raisins

You can use any dried fruit you like! Dried apricots or chopped mango would be fun too (like the spiced mango from Trader Joe’s!) I used raisins because that’s what I had on hand. I learned a trick once to soak raisins in hot water for a few minutes to plump them up a little, but you can skip that step if you’d like.

The Moroccan Salad Dressing with Tahini

Tahini is like peanut butter made from sesame seeds! (More here!) Thinned out with water and lots of lemon (and an optional clove of garlic!), this dressing is creamy and coats ever inch of the salad. A pinch of cinnamon gives it a subtle spice.

Whisk it together in a bowl and thin it to your liking with water. I like mine on the thick side!

Toss it all together and you have one happy salad!

More delicious salads:

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5 from 1 vote

Moroccan Salad with Tahini Dressing

This Moroccan Salad combines raisins and crunchy almonds with quinoa, chickpeas, spinach, capers and a creamy tahini dressing.

Course Entree, Salad

Cuisine Moroccan

Keyword almonds, capers, chickpeas, quinoa, raisins, tahini

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 30

Total Time 45

Servings 6 Servings

Calories 370kcal

Author Kath Younger