This salad may be just perfect for the holidays, but it’s actually my favorite kale salad to eat year round. There is just no other kale salad that compares! The fresh lemony dressing…the delicious, flavorful pecan parmesan…the dried cranberries…. This salad is made with simple ingredients but is big on flavor! Starting with fresh, quality ingredients is so important for this kale salad recipe. It will take about 30 minutes to prepare, and most of that time is spent de-stemming, chopped and washing your kale. After that, the recipe is a breeze! If you’re making this for a holiday dinner or other event, you can make it earlier in the day and it will save until dinner. It can be eaten the next day as well, but I wouldn’t recommend serving it the next day if you can help it. It’s definitely best the day you make it.
Can I use bagged, pre-chopped kale for kale salad?
As easy as that would be, NO, I would not use the pre-chopped, bagged kale for salad. The kale in those bags has not usually been de-stemmed, and you don’t want those tough raw stems in your salad. Trust me, it will ruin kale salad for you! If you can find pre-chopped, de-stemmed kale in a bag, go for it, but you will still have to chop it smaller.
How to de-stem and chop kale:
Here’s what I do. Start with fresh, unwashed kale. With each leaf, cut out the center tough rib. I use a knife to slice around it on each side. You can also use your hands and tear it from the rib, but I tend to lose more usable kale this way. Then, finely chop your kale. The smaller, the better. Large pieces of kale are difficult to chew; it will taste much better chopped very small. Wash and spin the kale dry, then place in a large bowl. (I use my handy-duty salad spinner for this.) I prefer to use tuscan/lacinato kale for this particular kale salad recipe. You can use the other varieties as well, such as curly kale. I would recommend the best quality, organic kale you can find for the best results. *This post may contain affiliate links.
What is the salad dressing made of?
The dressing for this kale salad is light and simple. It consists of fresh lemon juice, dijon mustard, maple syrup, garlic and a little salt. I just add all the ingredients to a jar with a lid and shake, shake, shake until it’s combined. SO easy!
What is pecan parmesan and how do I make it?
Pecan parmesan does not have real cheese in it, of course (this is a vegan blog after all!). It’s simple, but SO tasty. It’s raw pecans, nutritional yeast and salt that has been processed a little bit to create a coarse crumb texture, similar to parmesan cheese but with a bit more texture left. I prefer using my food processor to make it, but it would probably work with a blender, or if you don’t have either of those you could probably put the nuts in a large bag and crush them with a heavy object, then mix with the nutritional yeast and salt.
How do you massage kale for kale salad?
Massaging kale always sounds like such a funny phrase to me. But don’t skip this step, it will make a world of difference for the taste and texture of your kale salad. Massaging the kale, or working it with your hands a little bit, takes a bit of the rough edge off of the kale, and makes it much easier to chew when it’s raw. It makes the kale just slightly tender. So, to massage the kale, for this particular recipe, pour the dressing over the greens in a large bowl. Start working the kale with your hands; crunch the kale with your hands in a massaging fashion. You don’t want to do this for too long, just until the leaves turn a darker green and the volume of greens is reduced by about half. Maybe 30 seconds or so.
After massaging with the dressing, all that’s left to do is top with the delicious pecan parmesan and dried cranberries. Serve immediately, or save in the refrigerator for up to one day. Enjoy!
Want more vegan salad recipes?
Vegan Caesar Salad Vegan Ranch Dressing Watermelon Avocado Arugula Salad Vegan Coleslaw
Adapted from Oh She Glows.
