A Really Good Kale Salad

This versatile salad is perfect for weeknight dinners, topped with chicken, or a as a side to hearty winter roasts or stews. 

It’s also a great salad to make in the evening for lunch the next day. The ingredients for this salad can be prepared a day in advance: store the greens and carrots together but keep the beets and cheese separate, add the apple to the vinaigrette to prevent it from browning.

A Really Good Kale Salad

By Josie Malevich

Ingredients

Salad:

• 1 head kale, stems removed and chopped or finely sliced (about 6 cups)
• 1 ½ cups chopped or finely sliced radicchio
• 1 ½ cups chopped or finely sliced escarole
• 1 Honey Crisp apple, cored, thinly sliced or chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced or cut into matchsticks
• 1 small beet, peeled and thinly sliced or cut into matchsticks
• ⅓ cup dried cherries or cranberries
• ⅓ cup toasted almonds
• ½ cup shaved Parmesan cheese (optional)

Vinaigrette:

• ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp good grainy mustard
• 1 tbsp honey
• Salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Preparation

Salad:

Toss together kale, radicchio, escarole and vinaigrette. Taste and adjust with seasoning, adding a touch more salt or a splash vinegar.  Stir in apple, carrot, beets, dried cherries and almonds. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with Parmesan cheese, if using.

Vinaigrette:

Whisk together oil, vinegar, shallot, mustard, honey, salt and pepper.

Recipe notes:

Kale stems are really fibrous and stringy so make sure to remove before chopping and slicing.  For a milder and sweeter flavour, use Tuscan kale, also known as dinosaur, black cabbage or lacinato.