Gordon Ramsay Quinoa Salad Recipe 

Gordon Ramsay’s quinoa salad is a light, fresh dish made with toasted flaked almonds, raisins, cherry tomatoes, spring onions (scallions), stripy cucumber, and fresh mint, dressed with lime juice and olive oil. It takes about 20 minutes and serves four as a side or light lunch.

The recipe appears as Quinoa Salad in Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Home Cooking (2013), where he writes it’s “based on a very popular dish we serve at Bread Street Kitchen.” In his YouTube video for the same recipe, he calls it part of his “ultimate light lunch” and describes it as having “amazing textures and fresh aromatic flavours to excite the palate,” while being “incredibly light and very healthy.”

The technique worth stealing is how he handles the cucumber. Instead of chopping it plainly, he runs a vegetable peeler lengthways down the skin to create alternating green and white stripes, then halves it, scoops out the seeds, and cuts half-moon slices. It takes ten extra seconds but makes the salad look restaurant-quality, which tracks with this recipe coming straight from the Bread Street Kitchen menu.

FAQs

Why does Ramsay spread the quinoa on a tray to cool?

Draining quinoa and leaving it in the pot turns it into a sticky, clumped mass because the residual steam has nowhere to go. Spreading it flat on a plate lets the moisture evaporate quickly, so every grain stays separate and fluffy. In his YouTube video, you can see him spreading it out carefully across the whole surface. It also cools the quinoa faster, which means the fresh mint and tomatoes won’t wilt when you mix them in.

Why raisins in a savoury salad?

The raisins add pockets of sweetness that balance the sharp lime juice and the peppery spring onions. It’s a contrast that gives the salad more depth than most grain salads, and the chewy texture plays against the crunchy almonds and crisp cucumber. Without them the flavour profile stays one-note. In the video, Ramsay adds the raisins straight into the pan with the toasted almonds, so they warm slightly and plump up.

Why does he mix the salad with his fingers instead of tongs?

In both the book and the YouTube video, Ramsay uses his fingers rather than utensils to combine the ingredients. Fingers give you more control over how gently you toss everything, because tongs or spoons would crush the cherry tomatoes and break up the delicate quinoa grains. You can feel when the dressing has coated each ingredient evenly, which is harder to judge with a spoon.

How does this compare to his other quinoa dishes?

Ramsay uses quinoa in three different books. His Superfood Salad from Bread Street Kitchen (2015) uses only 60g of quinoa buried under roasted squash, two types of broccoli, edamame, and a yoghurt dressing. The Roasted Cauliflower, Quinoa and Pomegranate Salad from Ultimate Fit Food (2018) takes a warmer direction with roasted veg and pomegranate seeds.

This Ultimate Home Cooking version is the simplest and most quinoa-forward of the three. The grain is the star rather than a supporting player, which makes it the most versatile side dish for grilled fish or chicken.

What does Ramsay serve this with?

In both the cookbook and his YouTube video, he serves this quinoa salad as part of a trio: alongside his Mackerel Ceviche and a Shaved Fennel Salad with coriander (cilantro) and lime. He suggests using the leftover grapefruit marinade from the ceviche as an alternative dressing for the quinoa. For a simpler pairing, it works alongside a cucumber salad or a beet salad without any flavour overlap. His couscous salad uses a similar grain-based approach if you want to offer your guests a choice of two.

Sources: Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Home Cooking (Hodder & Stoughton, 2013), gordonramsay.com/gr/recipes/quinoa-salad, and Gordon Ramsay’s official YouTube channel (“Gordon Ramsay’s Mackerel Ceviche with Fennel Salad & Quinoa Salad Recipe”).