A Kale Salad For All Occasions

My sister Julia introduced me to this salad many years ago. I've tried other versions, using bread crumbs, different nuts, and dried fruit, but this is the one that I always come back to because, frankly, it's the best. It is a year-round staple at our house. It is delicious served next to pasta dishes at dinner, smoked salmon at lunch, or straight out the bowl when no one is looking. It hits most of my favorite points on the Family Food Venn Diagram: tastes elevated, is healthy, lasts for days, and 2 out of 3 of my kids like it.

Note On Food Processor vs Making by Hand: This salad can be made by hand, and I have made it by hand. That said, since all of the ingredients can be prepped quickly in a full sized food processor, if you have access to a food processor, I'd go ahead and use it. You'll need both the blade and the slicing disk.

Note on Kale Varieties: our favorite version of this salad uses a mix of lacto and red kale, but you can substitute and use green kale for the red, or use all one type of kale.

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Kale Salad

Serves 8-10. 20 minutes (washing and slicing kale takes most of this time). Plus, ideally, a few hours to chill in the fridge.

Ingredients

For Salad

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup whole unroasted unsalted almonds

6 oz parmesan cheese

1 large bunch Lacinato/tuscan/dino kale (or 2 smaller bunches)

1 medium-large bunch red kale

Fresh Salt and Pepper to taste

For Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4-ish cup shallot (usually 1-2 shallots)

1 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon table salt)

Juice of 1/2 large lemon

2 teaspoons dijon mustard (any variety)

2 tablespoons honey

STEP ONE

Mince your shallot. Put the shallot into a small bowl squeeze lemon juice on top and add salt. You want the lemon to cover the shallot so that the acid from the lemon "cooks" the shallot while you prepare the kale. Set mixture aside.

STEP TWO

Cut parmesan into 3-4 pieces then add to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade. Process your parmesan by pulsing until it until it is coarse small crumbs about an 1/8 of an inch thick (we actually like to have some bigger and smaller pieces). Then pour cheese into a small mixing bowl and set aside. Or shred cheese using a box grater.

STEP THREE

Using a large skillet, toast almonds in 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium low heat until they begin to brown and smell good. Make sure to stir them to promote even browning and be careful because while they take a while to start toasting, they go from not toasted to burnt in a very short time. After toasting, let almonds cool for a minute or two. Next, add to the food processor bowl and, using the metal blade, pulse until almonds are broken into pieces (about twice the size of your parmesan pieces). Set almonds aside in the same mixing bowl as the cheese. Almonds can also be chopped by hand.

STEP FOUR

Prep your kale. Wash and dry your kale and then remove toughest parts of the stems. Usually this means I remove 2/3 of the kale stem. See photo above. Then either cut leaves into a 1/4 inch strips (a thick chiffonade) or use the slicing disk on a food processor. Add kale to a large bowl. Then add cheese and almonds on top of your kale.

STEP FIVE

Finish your dressing. Add the rest of the dressing ingredients to your lemon-shallot mixture and whisk together. Pour dressing on top of your kale, cheese, and nuts, and toss salad to combine.

Salad can be eaten right away, but it tastes best with a few hours in the fridge. This extra time allows the dressing to slightly soften the kale. Salad lasts for 4-5 days in the fridge.