When I tell you that I’ve made this salad 50 times, I’m not lying. It’s my all-time favorite. It checks all the boxes for me… lots of flavor, healthy, easy and quick to make. Which makes it ideal for a week night. Also I’ve had a recent obsession with the marinated chicken breasts from The Butcher’s Market in Raleigh. Their Jalapeno Lime chicken breasts grilled go great on top of this salad. But feel free to sub for another protein if you’d like, or just leave the meat off altogether. I sometimes serve this at parties without meat as a side salad.
Ok, so first lets discuss what kind of kale to buy. You CAN buy standard curly kale, but honestly it won’t taste as good. The texture is too rough. This salad is best with Tuscan Kale AKA Lacinto Kale. It can be a little tricky to find but I know that both Publix and Lowe’s Foods carry it. Trader Joe’s also has it. I couldn’t find it at my local Harris Teeter.
Also – I know I’ve gone into this on other posts but shredding your own cheese is really important. It’s not half as good pre-shredded!
The thing that makes this salad really good is taking the time to massage the kale with a bit of the dressing. The first time you massage kale it feels very weird and wrong, but don’t skip this! It’s really important. It softens the texture of the kale, which if you’ve ever had kale and didn’t like it, it’s probably because you didn’t care for the texture. Give this theory a try and I promise you won’t be disappointed.
The dressing is super easy to throw together. It’s pretty simple – shallots, garlic, olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper.
After you massage the kale, let it rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes. That’s when I grill my chicken.
From here, it’s just a matter of assembling the salad. I like sliced almonds and dried cranberries on mine. Yes, you can change them out for whatever substitutions you have at home but I think you should make this as written first! The combination of everything together is just perfect.
I know it doesn’t look like anything special, but it will blow your mind and make you love salads… promise 😉
THE Kale Salad
Ingredients
- 1 bunch Lacinto Kale, AKA Tuscan Kale
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 1 lb chicken breasts, grilled
For the Dressing:
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, minced
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt + pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut the stems out of the leaves of kale, chop kale into chunks and place in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl and pour half of the dressing onto the kale. Massage kale for 3 minutes between your fingers. Place the bowl in the fridge to rest.
- While the kale is resting, grill chicken or cook chicken however you'd like. Shred the parmesan cheese and prep other ingredients as needed.
- Assemble the salad with kale at the bottom. Top with shredded parmesan, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, and grilled chicken. Pour remaining dressing on top and serve immediately.
