A fresh salad is a perfect lunch or side for almost any meal.
This easy kale salad is packed with fresh veggies and a super simple homemade lemon dressing, making it perfect as a healthy side dish!
Full of fresh ingredients with lots of flavor and crunch, this is definitely one of my very favorite kale salad recipes!
An Easy and Delicious Kale salad
A quick and easy kale salad recipe is perfect for warm weather but we honestly love it all year long!
- It’s fresh, delicious, and totally make-ahead so feel free to prep this bad boy the night before and pack it along in lunches the next day.
- Unlike tossed salad, we love how leftover kale salad (even with dressing) can be kept in the fridge.
- Packed with nutrition but more importantly, packed with flavor, this will anyone into a kale lover!
- The zesty homemade lemon dressing takes just minutes to prep and is so much better than store bought.
How to Prepare Kale
Kale actually makes the ideal prep-ahead salad and sandwich greenery because of its ability to hold up like a champ in the fridge! It stays fresh without wilting long past its leafy counterparts. Prepare kale quickly over the weekend and it will keep fresh and crisp all week long and keep it on hand as a salad green all week long.
- Rinse the kale leaves in cold water.
- Remove the thick stem by pulling off the leaves.
- Spin dry in a salad spinner or shake dry and dab with a kitchen towel.
- Massage the kale, more on that below.
How to Massage Kale
Say what?! Massage the kale? Massaging kale releases some of the bitterness and helps tenderize or soften it for salads. You can skip this step but honestly, I’d say give it a try at least once. It changes the texture and the flavor of the salad. I use curly kale but have also used dinosaur kale in this recipe.
- Tear or chop the washed kale into bite-sized pieces, then sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
- Next drizzle a little olive oil in your hands, just a tiny bit! Pick up some of the kale and rub it, massaging the leaves until they darken in color and become tender.
I swear that a massaged kale salad tastes a million times better – we wouldn’t prep kale any other way! Prefer to massage your kale without oil? Try a little fresh-squeezed lemon juice instead!
How to Make Kale Salad with Cranberries
Really, this is one of the best kale salad recipes around! Kale salad with cranberries, almonds, and a quick and fresh lemon kale salad dressing.
- Wash and massage the kale per the recipe below.
- Prep remaining ingredients and add to a large bowl.
- Place dressing in a jar and give it a shake (or whisk in a bowl). Toss with the salad.
Variations
This easy peasy kale salad with cranberries is loaded with tasty mix-ins. There are so many raw kale salad ideas! I chose to add carrots, broccoli, red onion, dried cranberries, cheese, sliced almonds, and sunflower seeds, but you could totally get creative here and empty out your crisper drawer! Add some avocado when serving if you’d like.
- Raisins would work excellent instead of the cranberries or try other dried or fresh fruit like apples!
- I used cheddar cheese here (a favorite salad mix-in of mine!) but feta cheese, parmesan, or goat cheese would work well too. You could even go dairy-free and make this scrumptious salad vegan!
- Swap out almonds for other nuts like pecans or walnuts.
- Make it a meal and top with cooked chicken, steak, grilled shrimp, or salmon. Skip the meant and sprinkle with your fave grain like quinoa or add in chickpeas.
More Kale Recipes
Leftover kale can be stirred into pasta, blended into pesto, and even baked into crispy kale chips if the craving strikes! The possibilities are endless. I even love a little kale on my pizza when I have it handy. Is kale good in a salad? It’s so crazy versatile!
- Kale Quinoa Salad
- Kale Caesar Salad
- Tropical Mango Kale Smoothie – SO GOOD!
- Garlic Butter Kale Rice
- Quick Homemade Kale Pesto
- Garlic Bacon Kale Recipe (How to Cook Kale)
- Sausage & Kale Soup
- Cilantro Lime Mexican Kale Salad
If you get a chance to try this easy kale salad, let me know in the comments below!
Easy Kale Salad with Fresh Lemon Dressing
Ingredients
- 5 cups kale chopped
- 1-2 teaspoons olive oil
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups broccoli chopped
- ½ cup almonds sliced
- ½ cup cheese optional (cheddar or feta work great here!)
- ¼-½ cup carrots shredded
- ¼ cup red onion diced
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup cranberries
Lemon Dressing
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon honey or sugar adjust + add to taste
Instructions
- First make your dressing by combining ingredients above in a lidded mason jar then shake well to emulsify. Dip a kale leaf in the dressing and adjust sweetener, salt, and pepper to taste. You can make this dressing as sweet or tart as your heart desires!
- Next massage your chopped kale with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt. Rub with your fingers until leaves begin to darken and tenderize. This makes it taste great and gives the kale a silky texture!
- In a large bowl, combine massaged kale, broccoli, almonds, cheese, carrots, onion, sunflower seeds, cranberries. Shake your dressing once more and pour about ⅓ of the dressing over the salad. Toss to coat and add extra dressing, to taste.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Salad
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Delicious salad! I used quick pickled red onion and carrot just because I had them in the fridge and left out the cheese because I didn’t feel it needed it. So so good!
Sounds great Kathy!
This is my new favourite salad recipe. I have been making it for numerous guests and events and always get compliments on it. Somewhat time consuming to chop everything, but worth it. :)
Is this recipe the same as Peasandcrayons kale-salad??
Sure is Megan, Jenn is the author of this delicious recipe!
Hi, is there any substitution for red wine vinegar? I have only white wine vinegar at hand
White wine vinegar will work in this recipe too. The flavor will be slightly different but still delicious.
I needed a salad to take to a dinner party. I wanted something healthy, colorful, and easy to put together with what we had on hand. I subbed green onion for red onion since that’s what I had, and left out sunflower seeds. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. The flavors and textures melded beautifully, and the dressing was so tangy and fresh.
Great substitutions Elizabeth! That would be delicious. Glad to hear everyone loved it.
Great recipe. 1 carrot = ~1/4-1/2C. Used 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar because I ran out of wine vinegar.
Turned out GREAT!
Yummy, thank you! delicious!
Colorful, nutritious and delicious for several days in a row! Used dark green Tuscan kale and a couple of other kale types. Dinner guests requested recipe. Thank you!
This salad is amazing! I think the dressing makes it five-star. Didn’t have almonds, so we added pecans and also added avocado at the end. Hubby and I have eaten it for three meals already, and still enjoying it tremendously!
Simply delicious!
This is one of my new fave salads. I had Mediterranean style air fried salmon on top and it just paired so perfectly! The only adjustment I would be a little less or no sunflower seeds, But that’s just a personal taste, they were a little overpowering. Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe!
You’re very welcome Audrey. Glad you love the salad!
This salad was REALLY good! We had it the next day for leftovers as well and it was even better. I’ve tried kale before and never liked it, so I didn’t have high hopes. But I was pleasantly surprised and happy that it was yummy. I was even more happy that my elderly parents AND my teenaged children thought it was good, too. Thanks for the recipe, it will definitely be a go to for me!
Thankyou resepnya
This has become my favorite go-to salad recipe. The dressing is delicious and the salad was a big hit – even with some of the pickiest eaters in my family!
I have never particularly cared for kale but I grew some in my garden this past summer just because I could start it so early. I found this recipe and liked all the ingredients so I thought I would give it a try. NOW I can’t get enough of this luscious salad. I followed the recipe exactly as written and it was a hit with the entire family.
I added a teaspoon of cherry preserves to the dressing and it was amazing! We don’t care for cranberries so the cherry preserves inside the dressing gave us the tartness of the cranberries throughout the salad. Delish!
I really liked this salad! We served it with pork and date relish and it was a great balance of flavors. Will make again :)
I’m commenting on the Kale Broccoli Salas. We had to throw it away. It was the oregano that was added to the dressing that permeated the whole lovely salad and all the ingredients. Please take this spice out of the recipe.
I rarely post reviews, but when I came back after dinner to find this page to send the link to some friends to recommend it, I decided it deserved some praise! I soaked my chopped red onion in some lemon juice before adding to the salad to neutralize and flavor it a bit. Super yummy and healthy recipe!
Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review Laura, I really appreciate it!! so glad you’ve enjoyed the recipe!
Loved this! Delicious. I used kale from my garden. Since I didn’t have broccoli I subbed cut up kohlrabi bulbs. The dressing on it was yummy. I used feta cheese and raisins.
I’ve come back to this recipe again and again. This is a perfect way to use the extra kale we managed to overwinter in our garden. It’s absolutely delicious as written but also takes well to a few adaptations. Thanks so much for this recipe!
You’re welcome Laura, so glad you love this salad!
This is a GREAT-TASTING, COLORFUL salad, and one of my favorites when kale is fresh in my garden. From my experience serving this at parties, the combination of flavors appeals to just about everyone. What this recipe isn’t is EASY. There are 19 ingredients! Some are grated, some chopped, some minced. That makes for a time-consuming project, assuming you have the ingredients on hand; if you don’t, then this is an expensive recipe to make. That said, it’s still absolutely delicious!