The Perfect Kale Salad Recipe!

Thanks to this refreshing kale salad, I've finally found a way to eat raw kale and have it actually taste good! We couldn't get over how delicious this salad was and I'm already thinking of when I'll be making it again!

The flavor of the dressing, thanks to the lemon juice and honey in it, really helps tone down the somewhat harsh flavor of the raw kale. Plus, it also just compliments all of the others flavors in this salad - like that of the quinoa, walnuts, apples and goat cheese.

This is the perfect side at dinner to roasted chicken and mashed or roasted potatoes. It's also the perfect salad to bring to a party.

Originally shared Sept. 2016.

Ingredients You'll Need

• Tricolor quinoa
• Curly kale
• Apples
• Walnuts
• Cranberries
• Goat cheese
• Olive oil
• Lemon
• Honey
• Dijon

Are There Substitutions?

• Regular brown quinoa is fine in place of the tricolor
• Pecans could replace the walnuts.
• Feta could replace the goat cheese.
• Baby kale or lacinato kale can be used in place of curly kale, but do note that it won't require a resting period and may not hold up as long.

How to Make This Easy Kale Salad

• Cook quinoa according to directions on package and cool completely.
• Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients in a jar or bowl.
• Add kale to a salad bowl, whisk dressing once more then pour 3/4 of the dressing over kale and toss until kale is evenly coated. Chill 15 minutes.
• Add apples, quinoa, walnuts and cranberries.
• Pour remaining dressing over salad then toss. Add goat cheese, toss gently.

Tips for This Salad

• Use sweet apples to balance the tartness of the lemon. Use pretty red onions for a pretty color contrast.
• Let the dressing rest on the kale to help soften those not so tender leaves.
• Store it in the fridge up to 4 hours. Finally a salad that holds up well for a while!

More Kale Recipes You'll Love!

Kale Orange Salad

Lately I've been getting some of the best citrus I've ever had at the grocery store lately, which surprised me because I thought it was out of season but apparently it's not.

So I've had an abundance of oranges in my fridge and decided to make them into something healthy.

And here we've got this incredibly delicious Kale and Orange Salad that has such a delicious Orange-White Balsamic Vinaigrette. Then it's got the other salad musts - cheese and nuts.

I used goat cheese, toasted almonds and threw in some green onions for even more flavor to this bright, citrusy salad! Yes indeed, I'm loving everything about this salad!

Raw kale never used to be my thing until I started adding it into smoothies and salads.

Then when you pair kale with tangy citrus you get the perfect flavor combo.

Here you get crisp, tender kale, sweet and lightly tart oranges, creamy, tangy goat cheese, rich toasted crunchy almonds, and then it’s finished with a sweet and sour over-the-top delicious vinaigrette!

Trust me this is a salad you want to try! Feel free to sub. navel oranges for the blood orange if you can’t find them or if they cost 3x as much as the navel. I’m just obsessed with their pretty color so the extra cost is worth it to me :).

More Kale Recipes You'll Love

• Autumn Apple Quinoa and Kale Salad recipe
• Berry Avocado Quinoa Kale Salad
• Cold Buster Green Smoothie
• Raspberry Banana Smoothies with Kale

Pear Spinach Salad with Cranberry-Orange Vinaigrette

Have you ever tried adding fresh cranberries to your salad dressing before? It adds such a bright flavor and it's the perfect way to use up some of the extra cranberries you may have left over from your favorite cranberry orange bread or scones, or holiday cranberry sauce.

I often just freeze my left over cranberries and add a few to smoothies but I wanted to try something new with them, so I came up with this Cranberry-Orange Vinaigrette.

At first, I was just going to go with a cranberry (only) vinaigrette but I felt it just needed a little more to it and orange always goes with cranberry. That bit of orange zest just completes the dressing.

I also think the honey and sugar are a must because fresh cranberries can be sooo tart. Even though it is a rather small amount used here they still are quite bold so that little bit of added sugar and honey really tones them down.

Of course you don't have to make this exact salad, really this recipe is more about the dressing. Although it is a delicious salad if you want to try out the blend I liked to pair with this vinaigrette.

We all have our favorites that are on repeat every year but it's always fun to see something new grace the table.

This is a smaller size salad, which feeds about 4 people as a side so just keep that in mind if you are preparing it for the holidays and a bigger group.

You can stretch it and just add more spinach though as well, I just like a lot of the mix-ins (if I make it seem like ice cream and refer to them as "mix-ins" it makes salad seem that much more exciting right :)).

Another thing to keep in mind is that the pears are like apples, or even fresh basil. They brown rather quickly once sliced so just wait to cut them until you are just ready to serve the salad.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful fall season! I love fall but I'm really hating this 5:00 darkness. Which is why we are setting up our Christmas tree tonight. This salad and my Christmas tree make early dark nights that much better. Try it soon!

More Salad Recipes You'll Love!

• Chicken Caesar Salad
• Best Greek Salad
• Ritzy Green Salad (a must have recipe)

Butternut Squash Salad with Spinach

You may not think of adding butternut squash to your salad but it really just works, especially when you add it to a spinach salad along with toasted pecans, pomegranate arils, and tangy goat cheese.

Then you coat all of that with a honey shallot red wine vinaigrette and incredible things just happen! I'm telling you I just can't get enough of this salad!

I made it once this week and loved it so much that I deemed it worthy of my party this weekend and made it again. I'm guessing just about anyone could eat three platefuls of it.

All the flavors of this salad just meld so well together, plus it has fall and winter written all over it.

The Perfect Fall Salad Recipe

What? The first butternut squash recipe I've ever shared? Not sure what took so long but it's about time! We all know I'm crazy about salads as of late so I decided to try a butternut squash salad, something I haven't ever tried before. Really I don't cook that much butternut squash but I'm starting to like it more. And the best way to turn a somewhat boring something into something amazing? Add bacon.

You just can't go wrong with bacon and it's absolutely perfect in this salad. It gives it that salty, crispy, melt-in-your mouth bite and it pairs perfectly with the squash, feta/goat cheese and walnuts. And of course it goes perfectly with that maple-rosemary vinaigrette. Have you ever had maple bacon? It's amazing!

This is a versatile recipe, you can switch up the greens or add more greens to stretch the salad a little more, you can add some roasted chicken to make it more of a main dish, and you can use feta or goat cheese. I used feta this time around but next time I want to try it with goat cheese because I love goat cheese too. And for some reason it seems like a good cheese for fall. I'd even like to try this salad with sweet potatoes sometime.

Bring those delicious fall flavors to your dinner table this week by making this incredibly tasty salad! It's full of flavor and it will leave you wanting more! My husband who has always turned away butternut squash loved this salad!

Fresh Peach Salad with Basil Grilled Chicken

While there's still about a month left of summer, it is just starting to feel like it's over. We had our last beach day today, so that's my goodbye to summer.

One thing I love about the end of every summer is the abundance of fresh peaches everywhere. I had two neighbors bring me a bag full of them and I also had bought a bunch of local ones at the store.

So we have been eating peaches in everything and drinking them in just about every smoothie for the last two weeks. And no one is complaining about that around here, we all absolutely love peaches! Who could resist them? They're sweet, juicy, and perfectly tender.

I just love biting into a freshly picked peach. The other thing I love (and if you've been reading for a while I'm sure you've caught on by now) is grilled chicken salads.

They are so versatile and you can add just about anything to them, and if we are going to go all out on a salad we may as well make it into a meal, right? Since it's peach season of course I had to do a peach salad recipe, and this one does not disappoint!

I can almost guarantee that, like me, you'll love everything about this peach and basil chicken salad! From the chicken marinated and infused with fresh garlic-basil flavor to the combination of fresh peaches, corn, and goat cheese, and of course how well it is all complemented by the white balsamic vinaigrette.

I could pretty much live on this peach salad! It might just become one of your favorite summer salads, just be sure to try it before summer is over!

Strawberry Spinach Salad with a Crunch!

Let me just start off by saying this is one of the best salads I've tasted! I had two big platefuls then the next day I was dreaming about having more. It's summer so that means make a strawberry spinach salad whenever you get the chance, right?

With this salad I wanted to switch up the classic strawberry spinach salad and make a Strawberry CRUNCH Spinach Salad. Everything is better when the word "crunch" is added in. I love ramen in my salads and the major crunch factor they add, it's makes for such a good use for those cheap ramen packets. And when you toast them up it just makes them that much better.

To compliment the fresh strawberries in this salad I added some crumbled goat cheese, toasted almonds and fresh green onions and then to bring it all together I finished it off with a vibrant, sweet and sour, Honey-Red Wine Vinaigrette.

All that together makes this salad 100% delicious and truly irresistible! It will definitely leave you wanting more. I know this will definitely be one of my go to summer salad recipes, I'm already looking forward to making it again. Trust me when I say this is a salad you've got to try! And you need crunchy ramen in your strawberry spinach salads from now on.

Salad is one of my go-to meals lately. When you add a protein like chicken it makes it filling enough to count as the main course and no longer just a side dish or appetizer. Plus they are generally really easy to throw together, as long as you don't mind a little chopping.

This salad is definitely one of my new favorites and I'm sure I will make it countless times this spring and summer. I had two plates of it then still was left wanting more! It has such a delicious blend of flavors that all pair incredibly well together. Grapes and goat cheese are the perfect match, then you get this rich toasted flavor from the pecans, a little bite from the onions, a wonderful herbed flavor from the thyme and rosemary grilled chicken (which of course use fresh herbs if you have them this summer), and the perfect base to start the salad with a mix of baby spring lettuces. And of course, let's not forget that honey balsamic dressing that finishes it all off, it really is exactly what this salad needs and there couldn't be a dressing that could compliment it better! Its hint of honey and a fair amount of richly tart balsamic vinegar just makes this salad sing.

It's kind of like pizza crust is just a blank canvas and you just need to decide what you are going to paint on it. But honestly, we are all obsessed with pizza so why do we keep buying and making the same kinds over and over again? Let's add in a little pizzazz to these pizzas!