I just walked into my closet, tugged on the little string that dangles from the ceiling for light and counted fourteen pairs of boots. Fourteen pairs. That’s twenty-eight individual boots. Most are black, a few pairs have heels, one pair of riding boots covers my knees, and all but the rain boots are made of leather. Needless to say, I love boots. They are my footwear of choice in the cold weather months and I will never have enough of them. At this rate, they will soon require a closet of their own.
I harbor the same deep affection for kale salads. Kale salads make me happy. They are a staple in my diet in the same way that boots are a staple in my wardrobe and I will never tire of them. Kale salads, I tell you, are the answer to all sorts of problems. Too hot outside to cook anything? Kale salad. Tight jeans? Kale salad. Feeling sickly? Kale salad. Hung over? Wanna eat all your troubles away? Kale salad. Don’t know what to bring to a potluck with paleo, gluten-free and vegetarian attendees? Put on your best announcer’s voice and shout, “kaaaale salaaaaaaaad!”
There are a few tricks to making a kale salad taste really great, which I’ve elaborated on here. Every time I’ve heard from a real-life friend or commenter that one of my kale salad recipes turned them on to kale salads in general, I’m thrilled.
This salad is the fourth kale salad to appear on my blog and surely not the last. It’s hearty and holiday worthy, full of crunch from crisp apple, radish and pecans, studded with sweet, ruby red cranberries and tangy crumbled goat cheese, and tossed in a zippy honey mustard dressing. What’s not to love?
The recipe came from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
I had been eagerly awaiting the release of her cookbook for months and now that I have my own copy resting on my coffee table, I can say that it is magnificent. Every recipe has been meticulously tested and illustrated in photographs by Deb herself, and Deb never lets you down. If you like to cook, you are going to want this cookbook
I made a few alterations to Deb’s recipe, given the season and what I had in stock in my pantry. I added a chopped Granny Smith apple and traded dried cranberries for the dried cherries. I also used apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar, though I’m not sure I can really taste the difference in the end result. I’m making this salad again this evening for girls’ night with Downton Abbey and will be making it again for my family’s Thanksgiving. It’s a winner.
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 8 ounces kale (I used regular curly green kale, but Deb recommends Cavolo Nero or Lacinato, Dinosaur or Tuscan Kale)
- 4 to 5 medium radishes
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or cherries)
- 1 medium Granny Smith apple
- 2 ounces soft goat cheese, chilled
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
- Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spread the pecans on a baking tray. Toast them until lightly golden and fragrant, about 5 to 10 minutes, tossing them once or twice to make sure they bake evenly. Remove the tray from the oven and set them aside to cool.
- Pull the kale leaves off from the tough stems and discard the stems. Use a chef’s knife to chop the kale into small, bite-sized pieces. Transfer the kale to a big salad bowl. Sprinkle a small pinch of sea salt over the kale and massage the leaves with your hands by lightly scrunching big handfuls at a time, until the leaves are darker in color and fragrant.
- Thinly slice the radishes (this is easier to do if you first chop off the root end so you can place the base of the radish flat against your cutting board). Add them to the bowl.
- Coarsely chop the pecans and cherries and add them to the bowl. Chop the apple into small, bite-sized pieces and add it to the bowl as well. Crumble the goat cheese over the top.
- In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients together and pour the dressing over the salad. Toss until the salad is evenly coated with dressing. Serve immediately, or for even better flavor, let the salad marinate in the dressing for 10 to 20 minutes beforehand.
- Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Wait! Before you head off to the grocery store for ingredients, I have a few geeky blog-related announcements to make. With no further ado:
- You can now save and organize your favorite Cookie and Kate recipes using ZipList. Next to the titles of my recipes, you’ll see a link to “Save” it to your very own virtual recipe box, which is provided by ZipList. You can access your recipe box from the link labeled as such at the top of the page. ZipList, which is totally free to use, can help you organize your recipes, your meal plan and your grocery shopping list. Not only can you save my recipes, but you can also save recipes from other ZipList users like The Fauxmartha, How Sweet It Is and a host of other bloggers and recipes providers, like Martha Stewart. Try it out and let me know what you think!
- My recipe page now includes recipe titles underneath the thumbnail images, and I set up a page that presents the recipes by season as well.
What else do you want to see here? Your suggestions are most welcome.
73 Comments
Boots, kale salad and Downton Abbey? All of my favorite things, too! I love the sound of this fall-inspired salad and I was just thinking my family’s Thanksgiving menu was a bit carb-heavy. Thanksgiving menu too carby? Kale salad. :)
Kale salad is totally the answer to your carb-heavy Thanksgiving, Nicole. :)
I love this post for so many reasons. Let me share:
1. you compared kale salad to boots
2. you listed so many awesome and comical reasons you love kale salads
3. i read the “kaaaale salaaaaaaaad!” part in an Oprah voice
4. Smitten Kitchen was the first food blog I came across
5. I too love kale salads
I will be making this!
Thanks, Grace. This kale salad is a winner, I tell you! Oprah would agree.
I’m loving your recipes Kate! I just had the pumpkin alfredo fettucine and your vegetarian chili is now my go-to recipe! For this recipe, I’m thinking of substituting the swiss chard for the kale. What do you think?
I’m so glad you’re enjoying my recipes, Sandra! On this salad, I would go with kale if you can find it because kale’s texture is what makes the salad so great.
I could eat this for every meal!
so gorgeous. love big bowls of this kind of salad. Don’t wonder why you do this when there are others who seem to have mastered it. You have a GREAT space here! Love your photos and sweet words.
I just bought another pair of boots today – so addicted! I think you need to come to NYC soon for boot shopping (aka as my closet – I’m guilty of owning over 50 pairs!) and some salad making!
50 pairs! How do you fit them all into an NYC apartment?!
Love this salad and a Downton Abbey girls’ night sounds just about perfect!
This is my kind of salad, I make a similar dressing, love it!
I Wish I I had some right now.
This looks incredible, Kate!So fresh and healthy. Perfect to offset all the gravy I’m going to drink/eat. haha.
I love your reasons why everybody should eat kale salad. I totally agree with you. And this really looks amazing. Gonna try that one out!
Ahh, such wisdom. :) Although I don’t have the boot collection {jealous!} I have to agree about kale salads. Love the “Tight jeans…kale salad.” I have one to add. Too much doughnut making? Definitely, kale salad. — And now all I hear is Oprah after reading the comments! I will be making this today!
Ahaha, I think you could balance out those donuts with kale salads, no problem. I stuffed myself silly while on vacation in Belize this summer. I came back and ate a ton of kale… pants still fit!
I recently made Deb’s Gingerbread Spice Dutch Baby, but I was definitely eyeing this recipe. I’ll have to give it a shot!
Add another kale salad junkie to the list–I’d never eaten it before, and now there will be plenty of post-Thanksgiving decompression (of the stomach) happening by way of it. Thank you for sharing this! And yes, Deb is fantastic.
I’m loading up on cream and butter until Thanksgiving ends, then bring on the kale salads! I’ll be making this one again and again, for sure.
I can’t wait to get this book and this salad looks delicious. I’ve just made the move to Berlin, and sent all but a few of my boots in boxes, to arrive at a later date. It’s frigid here, and I’ll have to make do with the few pairs I managed to bring on the plane. Hopefully finding kale here will be easier then packing my suitcases was! Once I do, I’ll try this recipe out. And I love your ZipList addition – I’ll have to look into that!
Berlin! Fun! Hope your boots get there soon. I’ve heard kale is really hard to find in Paris so I sure hope you can find some in Berlin.
KAAAAALE SALAAAAD!
Looks delicious! Can’t wait to try. Jealous of all your boots and that you have access to more than one variety of kale. (I take whatever my lame small town grocery store puts out.) Checked out the link and now I know that I’m supposed to massage the kale. Who knew?
Massaging the kale makes all the difference, I swear. At least you can find kale where you are. I’ve heard that it’s impossible to find in Paris, of all places!
Thanks for sharing this recipe- it sounds great
I’m hosting a dinner party tonight and I’m so excited to make this and the pumpkin fettuccine you posted the other day! I’ve been looking forward to the pasta all week and I think this will be a perfect accompanying salad. Thanks for the good stuff! :)
Hope the recipes were a big hit at your dinner party, Kaleena. :)
Downton! Deb! KALE SALADS! yessss, this post rules, Kate ;) Also, I really like how your name and the name of this wonderous green, leafy food are so similar! And I will add that you did turn me on to kale salads. I will be serving one at my Thanksgiving this year. THANK YOU! hurray!!
Ha! I never thought of the Kate/kale similarities. I’m so glad you’ll be serving a kale salad at Thanksgiving… I’m sure you will convert some of your guests into kale lovers. Oh, I can say with certainty now that Downton with a kale salad is a killer combination.
I always wonder the same thing when I visit The Smitten Kitchen – the writing, photos, recipes are so spot on. And Deb is always one step ahead of everyone on recipes. She’s amazing.
But! I’m glad you are blogging, your space is lovely. And, I’ve never eaten a kale salad [should I be admitting this?] but all your reasons to eat one convinced me. And your pretty photos. So it’s on my grocery list for the week.
Thank you, Sarah. I’m so glad you added the kale salad ingredients to your list. I think you will love it.
Kate, I love that you compared boots to kale. I can totally relate!! Still haven’t seen the SK ccokbook yet but hopefully that will change soon!
Always looking for new ways to eat kale! This looks very promising. =)
If you like kale, you’ll l-o-v-e a good kale salad, promise. :)
I just stumbled upon your blog. Your photos and food look amazing! I’m definitely bookmarking so I don’t miss anything. :)
Thanks for commenting, Crystal. I’m glad you found my blog! Please let me know how the recipes turn out if you get a chance to try any of them.
I’m SO going to make this salad for Thanksgiving! I, too love kale salads, and I have been struggling with the decision of what to make this year. Each Thanksgiving I become more and more disappointed with traditional thanksgiving fare, as I continue to grow more accustomed to fresh, raw, healthy food rather than the cheesy, creamy, overprocessed casseroles that are so prevalent in most Oklahoma cuisine from our parent’s generation (sorry mom!). I really wanted to bring something healthy to offset all the other casserole’s around and this one totally fits the bill! And the icing on the cake is that I just received a ton of fresh kale from the Ok food co-op, from which I also have a bunch of organic pecans. I’ve been itching to try my new cranberry pear balsamic vinegar I got on my recent trip to San Diego… do you think it will be good on this salad?
Speaking of thanksgiving… will you be making it back to Oklahoma for the holidays? I’d love to see you!
Hey Steph! Thanks for the great comment, I’m sorry I didn’t answer it sooner. I’m totally with you on the Oklahoma Thanksgiving food. Standard Thanksgiving dishes are nothing to get excited about. I do think that dressing would go well on this salad. Let’s hang out after Thanksgiving. I should be around for a few days! Talk to you soon.
Yes, I keep reassuring my boyfriend Sam that it is, in fact, quite normal for a lady to have a closet full of shoes. He thinks I’m crazy and can’t discern the differences between most of them. Glad to read you have a boot problem, too :) I still don’t have Deb’s cookbook and I don’t know what’s wrong with me! Need to get on it … thanks for the delicious-looking recipe. Can never have enough kale.
Oh boy, you really need a copy of Deb’s book, Megan! And more boots. Always more boots.
also made this last night and totally fell in love. i cannot get enough of kale salads either and it is so tempting to add add add to them but when you keep it simple like this i am always happier. i was going to substitute ricotta salata for the goat cheese (i didn’t have any at home… sad for a cheese shop owner) but i actually forgot to add even that and loved the salad just the same! thanks for sharing!
Oh, to own a cheese shop! Glad you enjoyed it as a vegan salad anyway.
Eating this badboy right now. It’s definitely a keeper and my new favourite salad.
Cheers to you and Deb!
Happy to hear you enjoyed the salad, Kristen! Thanks for commenting to let me know.
Such a tasty looking salad!
This recipe is DA BOMB! Easily one of my new favourite salads. It has been added to the meal rotation! Also loving this site :) Thanks so much for putting all this together!
Hooray! Thanks, Jaycee.
This looks like it could be a great, healthy side dish on the Thanksgiving table. Nice post. Thanks.
This is definitely my kind of salad! It would be lovely on the Thanksgiving table :) Stunning pictures!
Hi
Just discovered your blog and must say that as soon as I finish this mail I’ll go and prepare some kale salad! :) love the dressing idea..
I live in Paris and travel a lot to Asia, miss the US a lot, not been there for a while.. so guess that your blog will give me flavours of it before my next trip.. Thanks for that!
And if you’re interested in twisted Asian modern salads check my FB page (mostly in French though..), cheers
https://www.facebook.com/CarnetDeSaveursEtSenteurs
I made this as one of my vegetarian contributions to my family Thanksgiving. I followed it exactly, except I replaced the dried cranberries with pomegranate. It was so delicious!
I’m happy to hear that, Michelle! Thanks for the comment. Pomegranates sound like a beautiful substitution. I made the salad for my family on Thanksgiving and realized that my grandmother had never tried kale before! She liked it.
We made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! We followed the recipe exactly like we always do with Deb’s recipe. :) It is so good! Thank you Kate for sharing this! I put the leftover pecans in my oatmeal with your applesauce for breakfast. Oh, I love your blog. :)
I’m delighted to hear it, Yen-Ning! If you haven’t gotten a copy of Deb’s cookbook yet, definitely add it to your Christmas list. :) Really happy to hear that you enjoy my blog, thank you.
Hurrah, this sounds perfect! Am going to make and bring to a festive girly luncheon tomorrow. Yoooooom! xx
Delicious! Made this tonight for my annual family cookie party. What helps to offset the copious consumption of sugar, butter, and sprinkles? Yup! Kaaaale salad! ;)
The wow factor for me in the salad–what took it from yum, to omg–was properly toasting the nuts! Wow! I usually cut corners on that step. Never again!
I made a few changes based on what I had on hand. No radishes or goat cheese, and also substituted fuji apples for granny smith.
I will be making this salad again, and again! Thanks for sharing friend!! :)
Hey friend. :) I’m so glad you enjoyed the salad. I think that kale with that zippy honey mustard dressing would go well with a variety of toppings. Toasted nuts are totally the way to go!
Wow, I never comment on recipes I find online, but this was AMAZING! By far the best salad I’ve ever had, have to agree with the other reviewer on the toasted pecans, they add just the right flavor. I omitted the radishes, but otherwise kept everything the same. So delicious, thank you for sharing!!
Thanks, Helen! I’m so glad to hear that you loved the salad. Toasted pecans/nuts in general really do make all the difference!
I LOVE kale and especially all of the benefits from it. I usually saute my kale in olive oil first makes the texture easier to chow on.Cranberries are a must on salads…it adds just enough sweetness to the saltiness.
Salad sounds fantastic! However i don’t really care for goat cheese. What can i substitute it with?
I think the salad would be really good without any cheese! You could just omit it altogether. If you like gorgonzola cheese, I think that would be good as well.
Made this last night, skipped the cheese, it was delicious! A hit with the whole family!
Glad to hear it, Darby!
OMG this is the second kale salad recipe I’ve tried from this blog and I think I had a new favourite vegetable! This is the perfect blend of crunchy, sweet, tart! Thanks for yet another awesome recipe (that my meat eating husband will even eat!)
P.S. I did substitute celery for radishes (had to work with what was in the fridge) but I bet the radishes add a great peppery crunch!
Thanks, Natalie! I’m so glad you’re loving the kale salads (I never tire of them).
We made your kale salad for dinner tonight – it was so good! It went great with our pork chops. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Katie! I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
Enjoyed this immensely!
Thanks, Terri! So glad to hear it.
I’m trying this recipe with my mom and it’s very good. I told her to put the oven at 350 degrees for the pecans but she put it at 500 degrees and burnt them! Haha
I found your site a few months ago and peruse it often. I’ve finally began making recipes and am LOVING them. This was the first I made and I’ve went back to it several times – my first kale salad and I’m a total convert now. The crunching it with your hands makes it so vibrant and alive. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this but the last time I made it I added a bit of chicken, baked some bread and turned it into chicken salad sandwiches for a picnic. Thank you for the recipes, beautiful photos and for turning this carnivore on to more vegetarian fare.
Thank you very much, Michael! I’m so glad you’re enjoying my recipes, even if you’re adding chicken to them. ;)
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