This is an impressive and festive fall dish, and a regular at our Thanksgiving table. To make it extra special, add some pomegranate seeds into the mix, and toast your own hazelnuts!

Ingredients
Grain
- 2/3 cup dry quinoa, or 2½ cups (16 oz) leftover cooked quinoa
Fruit
- 2 apples, diced
Protein
- 1 cup dry toasted hazelnuts, whole, halved, or chopped, 8 oz
Fat
- 1 Tbsp neutral tasting oil such as canola or avocado oil
Seasonings
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp good quality sea salt
Instructions
- Add dry quinoa to a saucepan with 1½ cups water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and simmer 15-20 minutes, until the water has evaporated. Fluff with a fork.
- Add the apples to the quinoa and toss with the lemon juice immediately to prevent the apples from turning brown.
- Toss in the rest of the seasonings.
- While quinoa is cooking, spread raw hazelnuts on a cookie sheet and roast at 350° F for 15 minutes. Stir once halfway through.
- Let cool completely on the baking sheet. They will continue cooking as they cool, and they need to cool completely to get maximum crunch.
- Add the hazelnuts before serving so that they don’t lose their crunch.
Notes
- To make this dish gluten-free, be sure to use certified gluten-free quinoa. Quinoa is a naturally gluten-free grain, but it is often processed with products containing gluten and this contamination can be enough to trigger an immune response in those with high gluten sensitivity or celiac disease.

This looks so delicious and just screams autumn !
Loved your yummy recipe 🙂
Thanks so much dear Katie. 🌷💖🌷
Hi Katie — This recipe looks great! I am hoping to bring it to my family’s Thanksgiving. This may be a silly question, but do you eat this warm or cold? Just trying to figure out how to make this ahead, store it, and account for any reheating time. Thanks so much for what you do! I love following your blog!
It’s delicious warm or cold, but I’d add the nuts just before serving so they don’t get soggy.
so if you were on maintenace phase, would you eat 6 oz. cooked quinoa for the protein?
Koni it sounds to me like you need a food plan. That would answer all your questions. Here’s a link to the one I use, if you sign up for the 14 day challenge you will get the food plans, including the maintenance documents. https://brightlineeating.com/start-losing-weight/
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