This easy kale salad comes with dried cranberries, pine nuts, parmesan, and a balsamic vinaigrette. This salad doesn’t need to be massaged—the kale will tenderize as it rests before serving.
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Some things need persuasion, even if they’re terribly trendy. When my friend Peg first told me about a fabulous raw kale salad, I smiled politely the whole time and thought, “Yeah right, have fun with that.”
But when my friend Katie brought this kale salad to a dinner party, it was the one dish among a multitude of fabulous dishes that I kept coming back to. (Oh, I’ll have seconds. Um, thirds. Okay, I’ve stopped counting, that’s good.)
This kale salad is now a favorite in our house and one of the most requested side dishes for holiday meals.
How to tenderize raw kale
That’s the deal. Usually, when you dress a salad with a vinaigrette, the dressing breaks down the cell walls of the salad and goes limp in minutes, which is why we usually dress a salad right before serving. In the case of kale, kale is tougher than lettuce (tougher than spinach, too).
When you cook kale, which is what we usually do, the heat of cooking breaks down the cell walls, making the kale more tender to eat. If you don’t cook, you can achieve almost the same tender result with a vinaigrette.
Incidentally, according to Shirley Corriher in CookWise (a brilliant book for anyone interested in the science of cooking), while vinegar causes wilting, it’s the oil and salt that do most of the work to wilt a salad .
The kale does not need to be massaged
With this salad made from raw kale leaves Instead of dressing and serving right away, we arrange the salad and then let it sit for a whileto allow the dressing to work its magic on the strong kale leaves, softening them for easier eating.
Many kale recipes call for massaging kale leaves, but with this recipe, you don’t have to. The green will soften on its own over time. This approach also makes this a great salad for parties or potlucks.
That said, if you want to speed up the tenderness process, you can massage the kale by rubbing the kale with your fingers to incorporate the vinaigrette.
What else helps to tenderize the kale for a salad? Slicing out the tough midribs and slicing the leaves into thin slices will also help soften the leaves. Using a more tender variety of kale like lacinato kale will also make a difference.
The ingredients for a great kale salad
The recipe below is one I adapted from the recipe my friend Katie gave me, which she adapted from a Dan Barber recipe that appeared in Bon Appetit.
The salad is made with fresh, raw lacinato kale leaves, thinly sliced, dried sweetened cranberries, toasted pine nuts, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and a vinegar-rich balsamic vinaigrette sweetened with a little honey. All in all, it’s a deliciously festive salad and would make a lovely accompaniment to any meal.
A good make-ahead salad
Prepare this salad at least 30 minutes or up to a couple of hours before serving. Leftovers also keep well and are good for lunch the next day, although they may be a little more wilted than ideal.
What to serve with the kale salad
This kale salad is an easy side for almost any weeknight meal, but goes especially well with baked chicken, baked salmon, or just a simple grilled cheese sandwich.
Simple ingredient swap
Feel free to substitute the pine nuts with toasted slivers of almonds and the dried sweetened cranberries with golden raisins. We use both alternately in this salad.
You can also use regular kale instead of dinosaur kale, you may want to let the salad marinate a little longer (two hours or more) before serving.
More ways to use up a bunch of kale
- Wholemeal pasta with kale pesto
- Scrambled eggs with kale and mozzarella
- Kale Waldorf Salad
- Orecchiette pasta with sausage and kale
- Kale Caesar Salad with Creamy Parmesan Dressing
Kale salad with balsamic dressing
Slightly adapted from a Dan Barber recipe that appeared in Bon Appetit in 2009.
Feel free to substitute the pine nuts with toasted slivers of almonds and the dried sweetened cranberries with golden raisins. We use both alternately in this salad.
If you use regular kale instead of dinosaur kale, you may want to marinate the salad a little longer, two hours or more, before serving.
ingredients
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1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries, chopped (or whole golden raisins or redcurrants)
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1/3 cup pine nuts (can substitute slivered almonds)
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1 pound fresh lacinato kale (also called Tuscan kale or dinosaur kale), about 2-3 bunches, rinsed and patted dry
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1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
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3 tablespoons olive oil
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1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
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1 tablespoon of honey
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1 teaspoon of salt
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1/2 teaspoon pepper
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1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, packaged
method
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Roast pine nuts:
Heat a small pan over medium-high heat. Spread the pine nuts in an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Then transfer to a bowl to cool.
Tip when toasting nuts: keep an eye on them! Nuts can go from browned to burned very quickly.
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Prepare kale:
Using a sharp knife, snip out the tough midrib of each kale leaf and discard or compost. Slice the leaves crosswise into thin, 1/4 inch wide slices.
The easiest way to do this is to work with a small bunch of leaves at a time, stacking the leaves and rolling them into a loose cigar shape. Then, using a sharp knife, work from one end of the “cigar” to the other, slicing 1/4 inch off the end.
Place the kale slices in a large bowl.
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Make the dressing:
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rice vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper.
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Dress the kale and mix with nuts and cranberries:
Half an hour to one to two hours before serving, mix the kale with the roasted pine nuts, the dried cranberries and the dressing and let the kale marinate a little.
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Stir in the grated Parmesan just before serving
