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Lemony Raw Kale Salad is a healthy, light salad packed with flavor. Add a protein such as grilled chicken or shrimp and make it a perfect meal!
This is the third post in my three-part series. We made it! The first post was my Easy Homemade Almond Hummus, and the second was my Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette. Both are ingredients in this salad. I know it seems like a lot of work to make three recipes for one little salad, but all three are super simple, and definitely worth it. Making fresh and healthy food that tastes good is the trick to loving to eat healthy.
As I mentioned before, this is my version of a salad I recently had at a restaurant, and I was blown away by how good it was, being that it was so simple. I had to try to recreate it. I think I got pretty close.
Tips For People Who Think They Don't Like Kale
You'll get so many more micronutrients and vitamins from a salad made with kale versus a salad made with iceberg lettuce or romaine. It's low calorie and one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. It's also loaded with antioxidants. Your body will thank you for eating kale!
Check out this great article on the benefits of eating kale.
With that being said, kale is a bit more "chewier" and bitter than your regular salad greens. The sweet, lemony salad dressing on this salad takes away a lot of the bitterness, so there's another reason for you to make all of the components of this salad. The bitterness is one of the main reasons people think they don't like kale. So, if you use a dressing to counteract the bitterness, you may find out you do like kale!
When prepping the kale for your salad, remove all of the large, tough stems. Unlike most other salad greens, these are just not good to eat in a raw salad. If you left these in before, I see why someone wouldn't like kale. I wouldn't either. The stems are too tough and fibrous to eat raw. Get rid of them!
Another great tip to use for raw kale salads is to massage the kale. I know this sounds really weird, but it works! Use a little bit of salt and lemon juice, or a little bit of olive oil, and rub it into the leaves, just until they start to get a little softer. This will remove a lot of the chewiness. Don't do it so long the leaves start to get limp. You can go too far and then the kale will seem almost mushy.
Tips for Making Lemony Raw Kale Salad
This recipe includes hummus, and instead of just plopping it on top of the salad, at the restaurant I had this salad at, they coated the bottom of the salad bowl with it. I thought this was such a good idea. It was a way to get it into almost every bite, but it didn't have to coat the salad and take away from all of the beautiful colors in it.
Above is the salad bowl coated with the hummus before adding the salad. I prepared the salad in a separate bowl in order to get the kale thoroughly coated with the salad dressing.
If you're planning to serve this for dinner to a group, I think a salad bowl set like this would be perfect. You could have the individual bowls "pre-coated" with the hummus and serve the prepared salad in the large bowl. Or you could just serve the hummus separate in another bowl and let everyone do it themselves.
For the crunchy part of the salad, I used Terra Chips. Not only do they taste good and look so pretty in the salad with their bright colors, they hold up well and don't get soggy. These chips are the perfect balance of salty and faintly sweet. (Not due to sugar, but because of the natural sweetness in the veggies.) Go outside of your comfort zone and try these chips!
For the cheese in the salad, I used Asiago, but I've also replaced it with goat cheese, and that was amazing as well. The goat cheese does have a totally different texture than the Asiago, but it worked. I love to try different things and change up recipes. Sometimes they work...and sometimes they don't!
If you can't find Asiago, you can use Parmesan, Romano or Grana Padano.
For the cauliflower rice, you can certainly go ahead and make your own, but I already had a GIANT bag in my freezer from Costco, so I went ahead and used that.
📋 Recipe
Lemony Raw Kale Salad
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons hummus
- 1 cup kale
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 pinch sea salt
- ½ cup cauliflower rice
- ½ ounce Asiago cheese
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette
- 14 grams Terra veggie chips
Instructions
- Spread hummus along bottom and sides of the salad serving bowl.
- Remove stems from kale and tear into bite-sized pieces. In a separate mixing bowl, massage kale with lemon juice and salt
- Add cauliflower rice, Asiago cheese and Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette. Toss until kale is thoroughly coated with the dressing.
- Add veggie chips and toss.
- Add salad to bowl with hummus and serve.
Nutrition
Also, please check out the tons of amazing recipes from other talented bloggers on Big Bear’s Wife's Meal Plan Monday post.
Monna Ellithorpe
Hey Teri,
I see now what you meant about winding up your three posts to something extraordinary.
I have tried kale and I don't like it but of course I wasn't given the tips that you do in this post.
I'll just have to make it a point to try it again.
Thanks.
Teri
Kale is a very strong, tough and bitter green when eaten raw. It just needs some love and then it's amazing!
Gregory Riffle
I am perpetually thought about this, thankyou for putting up.
Teri
Thanks so much!