This Kale Salad with Cranberries is a delicious way to get your greens in this winter! This easy to make kale salad is so perfect to serve to family and friends this holiday season. This simple salad is made with leafy kale, baby spinach, a quick homemade pickled red onion, toasted almonds, dried cranberries and a simple homemade kale salad dressing. Yum!
Can I get a capital "K" for KALE!🥬
This easy to make and delicious kale salad was created for a Christmas party we went to recently. And it was a HIT.
Kale salad recipes are everywhere are in the Internet but I'm so glad you found this one.
I think you're gonna love it! With the crunch from the roasted almonds, the slight chew on the dried cranberries and tangy hit from the picked red onions, it's a flavour symphony in your mouth.
This kale salad with cranberries would go well with really anything else you're making - for supper or as a part of a holiday spread or party.
Here are a few main dish ideas to serve with kale salad:
Jump to:
📝Ingredients for kale salad with cranberries
Here's what you'll need to make this kale salad:
For the pickled red onion:
- Red onion
- Sugar
- Red wine vinegar
- Salt
- Water
For the salad:
- Kale, large leaves
- Baby spinach
- Roasted almonds
- Dried cranberries
For the dressing:
- Olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Liquid honey
- Dijon mustard
- Salt
- Fresh ground pepper
See recipe card for quantities.
🔪Instructions
Here's how you'll make this kale salad. You can make the pickled red onion up to 2 days in advance!
Thinly slice ½ of a large red onion. In a small mason jar, add apple cider vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Stir to combine until the sugar is combined. Add the onion to the mason jar and put the lid on tightly. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days before.
Massage some olive oil onto washed and torn kale leaves. Let them sit.
In a large bowl, make the dressing. Adding the olive oil at the end in a steady stream while you whisk helps it to combine completely.
Add massaged kale, spinach, pickled red onion, dried cranberries and chopped almonds to the same large bowl that you made the dressing in. Toss to combine everything with the dressing.
🔄Substitutions and Add-ins
Here's some swaps if you need them:
- Instead of red wine vinegar - when you're making that quick pickled red onion, almost any type of vinegar will do the trick. Feel free to use apple cider vinegar as your pickling agent instead of the red wine vinegar
- No dried cranberries? Almost any other dried fruit can be used in place of the dried cranberries here. Try chopped dried apricots, dried cherries or even dried plums
- Say CHEESE🧀 - if you want, add in some feta, goat cheese or parmesan cheese to this salad
- Add apples - want some more crunch in this kale salad? Add in some diced green or red apples🍎
- Instead of the roasted almonds - the nuts in this recipe give it some great texture but it doesn't have to come from almonds. Try walnuts, cashews or even pistachios. Go for the roasted variety (or roast them yourself to up that awesome crunch factor)
- Wanna go sweet? If you like kale salad dressing that's a little sweeter, add in some pure maple syrup to the dressing to bump up the sweet factor
🥡Storage
This kale salad will be good for up to 8 hours after you combine everything so eat it up😋
The pickled red onions are good for much longer - a week or more in the fridge in that mason jar with a lid. Add them to other simple salads, wraps or even eggs in the morning!
🏅Two Top Tips
Make ahead: make the pickled red onion the night before (see instructions below.) Once you get everything into the jar, place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight. Since it's a "quick pickle", you decide how "pickled" you want the onion: the longer the red onion is in the pickling liquid the softer it'll be.
Save time: buy pre-roasted and / or salted almonds so you don't have to roast them yourself!
Hope you love this kale salad recipe like we do❣️
~April
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📖 Recipe
Kale Salad with Cranberries
Ingredients
Pickled Red Onion
- ½ cup red onion, thinly sliced
- ½ cup warm water
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Salad
- 4 cups kale leaves, washed and torn
- 4 cups baby spinach
- ⅓ cup roasted almonds roughly chopped
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries
Kale Salad Dressing
- 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoon honey
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
Instructions
Make the pickled red onions
- Thinly slice ½ of a large red onion. In a small mason jar, add ½ cup of warm water, ½ cup apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon sugar. Stir to combine until the sugar is dissolved. Add the onion to the mason jar and put the lid on tightly. Give it a little shake. Place in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.
- Wash the large kale leaves and dry them. Rip them into smaller pieces, off the tough stem. Place in a large bowl and drizzle some olive oil over them. Massage the kale leaves with your hands until coated with the olive oil. Let sit for about 10 minutes while you do the rest of the salad.
Make the salad dressing
- Combine dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice and salt in a large bowl with a whisk until combined. Then slowly pour the olive in as a steady stream, whisking quickly to combine.
- Add massaged kale, spinach, pickled red onion, dried cranberries and chopped almonds to the same large bowl that you made the dressing in.
- Toss everything together to combine well.
- Serve immediately.
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