Enjoy this Panera Bread copycat recipe of Mediterranean Quinoa Salad at home. With a mix of chopped romaine kale topped with cooked and chilled quinoa, roasted grape tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, and sliced almonds you’ll thing you are eating a Modern Greek Salad from Panera Bread (but for half the cost).
I’m so excited about this Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Sliced Almonds that I’m sharing today. On busy days when we’ve been running around doing errands in the morning I find myself running through the drive through. The thing is — I don’t like typical fast food. Lucky for me, I have a Panera Bread that has a drive through in my neighborhood. Which means I can grab a tasty salad and soup on the go.
I find myself running through the Panera drive through more days than none. But it gets expensive to eat out often, and since I’m constantly trying to watch what I’m spending I decided to try and make the new Mediterranean Quinoa Salad also known as the Modern Greek Salad at home. Let me tell you–it’s pretty darn close to what you get at the restaurant. And even better you can make 4 servings for the price of that one salad you get in the store.
Table of contents
Directions
- In 4 bowls, begin to arrange the salad by mixing ½ cup each chopped romaine and kale.
- To each plate add: 3 kalamata olives, 2 tablespoons of oven roasted grape tomatoes, 4 cucumber slices, ¼ cup cooked quinoa and 1 tablespoon toasted sliced almonds.
- Serve immediately and top with Greek Salad Dressing.
Tips & Tricks
Here are my tips and tricks when I make my copycat Mediterranean Quinoa Salad from Panera.
- Prep Ahead – This recipe calls for cooked quinoa and roasted grape tomatoes. Both need to be prepped ahead of time. I recommend making both of these at least the day prior.
- Dressing – You can make my homemade Greek Salad Dressing or purchase the Panera Bread brand from your local grocery store.
- Salad Blend – I find a mix of tiny pieces of chopped kale plus chopped romaine works best for a similar texture/consistency of Panera Bread’s salad.
FAQs
Here are all the ingredients you can find in the modern Green salad.
romaine lettuce
kale
kalamata olives
quinoa tomato sofrito blend
cucumber
toasted sliced almonds
Greek Salad Dressing
I wish I knew 100% what is in the Roasted Tomato Sofrito Blend, but what I have found by tasting it paired with a little research is that it’s a blend of tomatoes, onion, Canola Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Dried Garlic, Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, among other secret spices. I’ve found that by slow roasting grape tomatoes it tastes very similar to that delicious tomato sofrito blend Panera has!
I first started by roasting grape tomatoes. This is best to be done the morning that you want to eat the salad or the day before. It’s a slow process and they roast for a few hours on 200-250 degrees Fahrenheit for a good 2-3 hours. It seems like a long time but your cooking these low and slow. I make these often during tomato season. They are sooo good.
Next up, make the homemade Greek Salad Dressing. This recipe makes a little less than 1 cup which is great for small batch salads and should be plenty of dressing between the 4 salads. You’ll also want to cook your quinoa too.
Then, once you’ve done all the prep work it’s time to assemble the salad.
Quinoa Recipes
Still craving quinoa? Try these other delicious quinoa recipes.
This salad is so good and tastes so much like the new Panera salad yet cost a fraction of the price which makes me happy! This is a great salad to enjoy for lunch or dinner or even serve as a side with soup. Regardless of the way you serve this salad, I invite you to make my copycat recipe for Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Sliced Almonds.
If you make this Panera Mediterranean Quinoa Salad recipe, I would be honored and love for you to take the time to leave a star rating and comment! I spend hours developing and testing these recipes, and always love to hear feedback and user experience!
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Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups romaine lettuce chopped
- 2 cups kale chopped
- 12 kalamata olives divided
- ½ cup oven roasted grape tomatoes divided
- 16 cucumber slices divided
- 1 cup cooked quinoa divided
- 4 tablespoons toasted sliced almonds divided
- Greek Salad Dressing
Instructions
- In 4 bowls, begin to arrange the salad by mixing ½ cup each chopped romaine and kale.
- To each plate add: 3 kalamata olives, 2 tablespoons of oven roasted grape tomatoes, 4 cucumber slices, ¼ cup cooked quinoa and 1 tablespoon toasted sliced almonds.
- Serve immediately and top with Greek Salad Dressing.
Notes
- Prep Ahead – This recipe calls for cooked quinoa and roasted grape tomatoes. Both need to be prepped ahead of time. I recommend making both of these at least the day prior.
- Dressing – You can make my homemade Greek Salad Dressing or purchase the Panera Bread brand from your local grocery store.
- Salad Blend – I find a mix of tiny pieces of chopped kale plus chopped romaine works best for a similar texture/consistency of Panera Bread’s salad.
Nutrition
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KCshannon
Hey Katie, I don’t normally comment on these types of things but your salad recipe was fantastic. Loved it. Thank you! So delicious, just like Panera’s. I added some crumbled feta like the Panera does too-I never buy it already crumbled (tastes like powder); so easy to crumble from a block of it. Dressing was awesome too! Will be telling Mom, sisters, pals.
Katie
Hi Shannon! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave feedback. I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. It’s one of my favorite salad recipes!
Lisa VanBeck
Thank you so much for this recipe! This salad at Panera is my favorite but I really don’t like paying $9 for it. I was tempted to skip the tomatoes and buy sundried instead but I’m so glad I didn’t! They were the best part of the salad.
Katie
Hi Lisa! Yessss! So glad you enjoyed this salad. I agree–the tomatoes are the best part and so versatile.