This fresh fall take on a kale salad comes from Chef Bobby Flay. Fresh apple cider is reduced to make a sweet and sour vinaigrette. Wild rice grains add texture along with crunchy pomegranate seeds and soft baby spinach leaves.
You can add kale to nearly everything (soup, stew, pasta, salad), but sometimes it's nice to make an intentional salad with it. This one doesn't use up leftover bits from the fridge but is composed by Chef Bobby Flay in his cookbook, Bobby Flay at Home.
Other intentional salads that feature one.main vegetable are a Thai pomelo salad, Asian tomato salad, and a Korean broccoli side dish that some also refer to as a salad.
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Help the Kale Out
If you don't love the idea of eating raw kale leaves (which I didn't love for the longest time), there are a couple steps to help make the kale more palatable.
- Chop the kale into strips, so you're not trying to chew on these giant tough leaves.
- Massage salt into the leaves, so it actually has some flavor.
Salad Ingredients
These are the suggested ingredients, but you can easily feel free to substitute with the vegetables, fruit, and nuts you prefer.
- Kale - Kale comes in two varieties: Curly or Dino also known as Tuscan or lacinato. This recipe uses curly kale. It adds fluffiness and bounciness to the volume of the salad which the flat dino kale leaves will not do.
- Baby Spinach (or lettuce of your choice) - The tough kale leaves are lightened with tender baby spinach leaves.
- Wild Rice (or other grain) - It's called rice but it's actually a seed and one that is native to midwest America. It reminds me of an American dish that makes this a great salad to have on the Thanksgiving table. Quinoa, amaranth, farro, spelt, wheat berries, or another whole grain would be really good too.
- Walnuts - Or use the nut/seed of your choice such as pecans, almonds, pinenuts, or pumpkin. Just be sure to toast them first for extra crunchiness.
- Pomegranate seeds - These little juicy, crunchy jewels add tartness, a little bit of bitterness, and loads of fresh color. Almost mandatory for any fall harvest salad.
- Dried Cranberries - Dried apples, figs, or pears would also work really well to gild this salad with extra texture and sweetness.
- Salt and pepper to taste
See recipe card for quantities.
Salad Dressing Ingredients
- Fresh Apple Cider - Unlike juice, fresh cider is not filtered, cooked, or pasteurized. It has a darker brown and cloudy appearance compared to regular apple juice. I see it sold at farmers markets and also at Trader Joe's. It tastes a little bit bit sweeter, sour and fresher than regular apple juice. Use regular apple juice, if you don't have apple cider.
- Olive oil - Extra virgin olive oil might be a little too strong, but I would use the olive oil you have on hand.
- Neutral oil - I like to use grapeseed, sunflower, or expeller pressed canola oil. A combination of oils is used to offset the strength of the olive oil flavor.
- Dijon mustard - This helps emulsify and thicken the dressing while adding acidity. Whole grain mustard would work too.
- Shallot - This gives the dressing a little background of mild onion flavor. If you don't have it, you could use a little bit of red onion or chopped chives.
- Apple Cider Vinegar - You can't have a salad without vinegar, and apple cider is the ideal one for this fall themed salad.
- Honey or Agave (optional) - If the dried fruit, pomegranate seeds, and apple cider are enough sweetness for you, i would skip this honey addition. (I do, since I don't like savory foods acting like dessert.)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Combine salad dressing ingredients (except the oil and apple cider).
Whisk in the reduced apple cider.
Slowly drizzle in the oils, while whisking to emulsify the dressing with the mustard.
Massage half of the dressing with the kale leaves to help soften them.
Arrange the kale and remaining fruit, vegetables, fruit, and nuts in a serving dish. Drizzle over the remaining salad dressing.
Why kale is so helpful
In addition to being a health superstar, kale's sturdy leaves make it ideal as a make ahead salad. You can assemble the whole thing and let it sit there on the table while you're tending to other things (like a multitude of Thanksgiving dishes). Drizzle on the last of the salad dressing just before serving.
Tips to to make it better @home
- Kale and spinach should be spun dry. Once the salad dressing is mixed in, the kale and spinach wilt a little bit, but you don't get a watery mess as long as the kale and spinach are spun dry after washing. This serves about 2 cups of salad per person for 4 people.
- Cook your own wild rice. It takes a while, but you can do this ahead of time or the day before. To cook wild rice, combine ½ cup of raw wild rice with 2 c water, and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gently simmer. Cover and cook for an hour. The rice granules should be puffed and split. This might seem like their overcooked, but they'll still have good texture in this salad. Drain any water from the pot, spread the rice onto a plate, and cool.
- The reduction of apple cider doesn't have to be perfectly measured. The apple cider gets reduced to concentrate its sweet, sour flavor. This should take about 5 minutes over medium high heat, so keep an eye on the pot so it doesn't burn.
- Skip the extra sweetner if you don't like a sweet dressing. Depending on how sweet your apple cider or juice is, maybe this is already enough sweetness for you. Fresh apple cider varies greatly in sugar content, depending on the sweetness of the apples used and how long it's been since it was pressed. I used Trader Joe's fresh apple cider in this recipe and still added a teaspoon of agave for a salad dressing that was sweet but not sugary.
- Make this ahead of time. This works really well on a buffet table or made ahead for a Thanksgiving spread. I've left this salad mixed up with the salad dressing overnight in the fridge, and it was still nice the next day and not too wilted. I don't know if I'd do that again, but leftovers if. you mix up too much salad are still good the next day, and if you use Asian pear, they don't brown too much after being chopped and tossed with dressing overnight.
Other Plant Based Recipes
Recipe
Double or triple the salad dressing quantities, if you'd like extra dressing to use for other salads.
Recipe
Kale and Baby Spinach Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette
This fresh fall take on a kale salad comes from Chef Bobby Flay. Fresh apple cider is reduced to make a sweet and sour vinaigrette. Wild rice grains add texture along with crunchy pomegranate seeds and soft baby spinach leaves.
Servings 4
Calories 298kcal
Ingredients
Salad
- 5 oz shredded curly kale leaves, stems removed (This is about 8 cups of shredded kale.) See Note 1 for quantity of leaves to dressing. I like to cut the kale about ½" thick shreds rather than large pieces.
- 2 oz baby spinach (This is about 3 cups, loosely packed leaves.) roughly chop the leaves if they are large
- 1 c cooked wild rice or other grain such as quinoa, farro, wheat berries. See Note 2 for wild rice cooking instructions.
- ⅓ c dried cranberries soaked in warm water for 5 minutes
- 1 ea Asian pear, ripe pear, or apple sliced into ¼" thick pieces
- ⅓ c pecans or walnuts toasted and chopped
- ⅓ c pomegranate seeds
Apple Cider-Honey Vinaigrette (makes ⅓ cup)
- ½ c apple cider or apple juice Reduce to ¼ c over medium high heat. Then cool. See Note 3 for further notes on this process.
- 1 Tb shallot minced
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar Alternately use sherry, red wine, champagne or other light colored vinegar of. your choice.
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon agave or honey (if not vegan) or your sweetener of choice. See Note 4 for omitting sweetener all together.
- ¼ teaspoon salt I used pink Himalayan salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshy ground black pepper
- 2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tb neutral oil such as grapeseed, sunflower, or expeller pressed canola oil
Instructions
- Make the salad dressing by combining all of the ingredients except the oils. Slowly whisk in the oils. You want to slowly drizzle in the oils so they emulsify with the dijon mustard. (Alternately, the cheater way to do this is to stick all the ingredients in a small jar, twist on the lid, and shake. Then you already have a storage vessel for any leftover dressing.)
- Take half of the dressing and massage it into the kale leaves. You want to work the dressing in with your hands to help soften the leaves. (However, I skip this step if the kale is shredded thinly, since the shredding helps ease the toughness of the leaves.)
- Arrange the kale, wild rice, dried cranberries, Asian pear, nuts and pomegranate seeds in large serving dish. Drizzle over the remaining salad dressing.
- Serve immediately or prepare leave in the fridge and drizzle on the remaining dressing just before serving. *See Note 5 for leaving this salad mixed up with the dressing in advance.)
Notes
Once the salad dressing is mixed in, the kale and spinach wilt a little bit, but you don't get a watery mess as long as the kale and spinach are spun dry after washing. This serves about 2 cups of salad per person for 4 people.
- The quantity of this salad dressing to the amount of vegetables and fruit results in a lightly dressed salad. If you generally prefer more salad dressing and a stronger flavor, reduce the amount of kale to 3-4 oz or 6 cups of shredded kale leaves.
- To cook wild rice, combine ½ cup of raw wild rice with 2 c water, and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gently simmer. Cover and cook for an hour. The rice granules should be puffed and split. This might seem like their overcooked, but they'll still have good texture in this salad. Drain any water from the pot, spread the rice onto a plate, and cool.
- The apple cider gets reduced to concentrate its sweet, sour flavor. This should take about 5 minutes over medium high heat, so keep an eye on the pot so it doesn't burn.
- Depending on how sweet your apple cider or juice is, maybe this is already enough sweetness for you. Fresh apple cider varies greatly in sugar content, depending on the sweetness of the apples used and how long it's been since it was pressed. I used Trader Joe's fresh apple cider in this recipe and still added a teaspoon of agave for a salad dressing that was sweet but not sugary.
- This works really well on a buffet table or made ahead for a Thanksgiving spread. I've left this salad mixed up with the salad dressing overnight in the fridge, and it was still nice the next day and not too wilted. I don't know if I'd do that again, but leftovers if. you mix up too much salad are still good the next day, and if you use Asian pear, they don't brown too much after being chopped and tossed with dressing overnight.
Nutrition
Calories: 298kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Sodium: 191mg | Potassium: 349mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 4584IU | Vitamin C: 36mg | Calcium: 111mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @agiletestkitchen or tag #agiletestkitchen!
Food safety
- Wash hands after touching raw meat
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
- Never leave cooking food unattended
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
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