In honor of my month of healthy eating on the blog, I of course felt obligated to throw a token bunch of kale into my cart at the grocery store. No arm twisting necessary — kale is one of my favorite greens, and still seems to be oh-so-trendy at the moment. So I was ready to experiment with some new kale chips, or a fancy kale pasta, or some sort of kale soup. But as tends to happen, the kale got a little buried in my refrigerator, and wasn’t discovered until a few hours before I left town for Sundance. Oops!
So at the last second, I decided to whip up a healthy salad before leaving for the airport. And as seems to be a growing trend whenever I cook and photograph a recipe in a big hurry, it somehow miraculously turned out to be really good and really pretty. Go figure!
I’ve been on a kale and cranberry kick lately, so I went the “warm” route and sauted up some shallots and garlic and cranberries for a sweet and savory vinaigrette, then topped it all with some sliced almonds. I meant to also crumble on some cheese, but it turned out that the salad was great (and arguably a little healthier) without it. Soooo good, friends!!
So whether this is your first time making a kale salad or your 100th, you’ve gotta check out the recipe for this one.
The key to a good kale salad is taking an extra minute or two to massage the kale and soften it. Awkward sounding? Yes. Essential to soft, delicious greens? Yes.
It’s easy. Anytime you make a kale salad, just toss the kale with a little salt and oil and rub it in for a minute until the kale turns nice and soft and darkens slightly. So worth it.
Besides that, the rest of the salad is a breeze as well! Here’s the quick how-to:
First, get those two main ingredients ready to go — some good fresh kale, and dried cranberries.
Heat some oil in a large skillet, then saute up the shallots, garlic, cranberries, lemon juice, vinegar, and a bit of honey for the vinaigrette. The cranberries will plump up just a bit while cooking, and will be extra sweet and juicy. Mmmm.
Then spoon the mixture on top of your (massaged) kale, give it a good toss, then sprinkle it with some toasted almonds.
And voila! In just 10 minutes or so, this gorgeous kale salad is ready to go.
Kale Salad with Warm Cranberry Almond Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
- 1 shallot, peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons honey
- juice and zest of half a lemon
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
- 1 bunch kale, very thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- (optional) 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese
Instructions
- Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add shallot and saute for at least 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Then add cranberries, red wine vinegar, honey and lemon juice and zest, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
- In a large bowl, toss the kale with olive oil and an extra pinch of salt, and massage kale with your fingers for 1 minute until tender. Add in the cranberry/shallot mixture and almonds, and toss to combine. Serve topped with crumbled cheese if desired.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
This is SO good!! I had to improvise some ingredients (last minute plan). Also, I didn’t think my husband would go for a salad so I tossed the kale into the pan and sautéed it a bit with the dressing ingredients. I can’t wait to make this again according to the recipe. It’s definitely going to become a favorite go to for me.
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Meredith!
This was absolutely delicious!! I tried to pin it so I don’t have to worry about finding in future, but the pin took me to your entire pinterest site.. How do I save JUST the recipe.. Of course, I’m also now following you :-) Can’t wait to make more of what you are cooking!
Thanks, Deborah — we’re so glad you enjoyed it! As for the trouble pinning this, thats’ so strange — it’s working fine for us! :( If you’re on the blog and have this recipe opened up, you should be able to hover your mouse over any pic of the salad and pin it (and it should be just this specific salad recipe). Let us know if you’re still having trouble.
Made this tonight and was absolutely delicious! Thank you!
Awesome April — we’re so glad to hear that! :)
This was really good! I used red onion because I didn’t have any shallots. I also added a bit more honey because I like my dressing a bit sweet! Thank you!
Awesome, sounds delicious!
Hi. I have been browsing the Internet to try to find a healthy salad recipe for my mom & I to try. Luckily we came across your page & recreated your kale cranberry salad. It turned out really delicious & of course I had to snap some pics. for facebook. :) Thank you for the delicious easy to make recipe.
Thanks for sharing with us Mellissa — we’re happy you and your mom enjoyed it! :D
This was delicious and very easy to make.
We’re happy you enjoyed it Pat! :)
I made a huge batch of this salad last night for dinner. I thought it was just an average salad last night, but I had it again for lunch today and it was 10x better. I guess the kale needed to marinate in the vinaigrette a little longer. This will be a staple in my house now! Thanks for the recipe :)
We’re glad you enjoyed it Maggie — thanks for giving it a try! :)
If I wanted to take this for lunch to work, could I make dressing and then warm at work and then put on salad?
Looks so good – love Kale salads! Traci
Hi Traci! Yes, if you want to take this to work, we would suggest exactly what you proposed – we hope you enjoy! :)
This is my go to salad for holidays and any time I want to impress. I never tire of it.
Aww that’s so nice to hear Andrea, I’m happy you’re fan of this one!
This has become my favourite kale salad. Absolutely delicious.
That’s such a nice compliment Wilma, thank you – we’re so happy you enjoy it! :)