Kale Salad

This kale salad is one of my favorite foods right now. It’s easy to make, packed with vitamins and nutrients, and totally delicious. Also, it holds up well as left-overs. If I make it for dinner and toss it with the dressing, it’s one of the few salads that can survive (dressed) in a container in the fridge for a day or two. The kale is just that awesome–so sturdy! You can use whatever type of kale you like. Lots of times I do a mix of the curly-leafed kale and dinosaur kale since I tend to buy one bunch of each each week to have around for making green juice.

The Recipe

Serves 2 (large helpings)

3-4 cups raw kale, torn into bite-size pieces

1 apple

1 cup purple cabbage, chopped

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/8 cup onion (or more, to taste) chopped

1.5 T flax oil

1.5 T apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

The quantities in this recipe are fairly arbitrary and should be adjusted to your taste. I don’t measure anything when I make the salad, but this is generally the ratio of ingredients I enjoy.

Chop the onion and the apple. You can use any kind of onion (red, white, sweet, etc.). Just be careful with the quantity if it’s not a relatively mild onion-you don’t want it to be too overpowering. Any kind of apple will do (or pear, for that matter); I tend to get gala apples because I like their level of sweetness and crunch:

Put the onion and apple in the bottom of your salad bowl. Add the vinegar and the oil (Note: if you don’t have flax oil, use olive oil. I just like to try to get some extra Omega-3s). Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper (you may want to add more later, once you’ve tasted the final product). Stir the apple, onion, and dressing ingredients together. Set aside.

Wash the kale well and tear into bite-sized pieces. I find that soaking it in cold water for a short while helps to get any dirt or little bugs off of it:

Dry kale (either by spinning it in a salad spinner, or by patting it with a clean kitchen towel). Add kale to the salad bowl:

Chop purple cabbage (I actually got to use a purple cabbage from our garden recently!) and pecans. Add to the top of the salad:

Toss before serving and add extra salt & pepper, if desired. Voila! So easy- a delicious and nutritious kale salad. Do you have an all-time favorite salad recipe?