This kale salad is super simple, but oh so good. Kale and chickpeas are married with a bright lemon dressing for a flavorful and nutritious salad.
This simple salad is packed full of nutrition. With a simple lemon and olive oil dressing, it is a perfect summer side.
Unlike most salads, it is actually better if it has a while to sit in the dressing making it a perfect make ahead for entertaining as well. All you have to do at meal time is toss and serve!
During this time of year, our CSA boxes are heavy on greens including a generous bunch of curly kale. Usually I cook kale in things like soup, on zuppa inspired pizza, even in sausage and kale quiche or baked into chips.
However as hot as it’s been and as busy as we’ve been with my brother’s wedding and sister’s graduation I thought a kale salad would be a nice change.
Normally the kale salads I’ve had use a sweet dressing and dried fruit to balance out the kale. I wanted to try something different this time though.
We were planning to grill up some lemon and yogurt marinated chicken, so this simple salad dressed with lemon and olive oil called to me.
Email Me The Link
I'll email this post to you, so you can easily find it later. Plus you’ll get new recipes from me every week!
Making Kale Salad
While kale has a reputation for being a bit tough and slightly bitter, you can easily combat that with a little planning. First, be sure to remove the ribs.
Then go ahead and run your knife through it to chop it relatively finely. While this is discouraged with more delicate greens, it is encouraged with kale!
Also, go ahead and dress the salad a few hours ahead in you can. The prolonged exposure to the lemon juice, oil and salt help make for a milder texture and flavor in the kale and you don’t have to worry about soggy salad.
I encourage you to try this bright and fresh salad with your next bunch of kale as well. Meanwhile in case we get more kale next week, what are your favorite summer kale recipes?
More great salad recipes:
- Red, White and Blueberry Dinner Salad is a perfect mix of sweet and savory with a little patriotic coloring thrown in for good measure!
- Summer Corn Salad is another CSA favorite. It has all of the fresh summer produce favorites on a base of corn instead of greens!
- Bok Choy Salad with Apples and Peanut Dressing is full of crunchy goodness and the flavor combo is fun too. it is definitely a must make!
Lemony Kale and Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 1 bunch kale
- 2 cans chickpeas drained
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- 4 Tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- pinch red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Remove leafy green parts of kale from the stems. Discard stems and chop leafy part relatively finely.1 bunch kale
- Place chopped kale in a big bowl and drizzle in lemon juice and olive oil. Season with garlic powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Vigorously toss to coat kale in dressing. I like using my hands for this to make sure it is really coated.4 Tablespoons olive oil, 4 Tablespoons lemon juice, ½ teaspoons garlic powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, pinch red pepper flakes
- Toss the chickpeas with greens. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours before serving in possible.2 cans chickpeas
- Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and toss before serving.¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Leftovers hold up well for a couple of days covered in the refrigerator.
Video
Email Me The Link
I’ll email this post to you, so you can easily find it later. Plus you’ll get new recipes from me every week!
Did you try this recipe?
Don’t forget to leave a rating below and make sure to follow on Pinterest and Instagram for more!
Get social!
Recipes in your inbox
I've been eating lots of chickpeas lately, but have yet to try kale. This looks like the perfect way to do it!
I need to share this recipe with my brother – his garden is overflowing with kale.
I've been eating more and more kale and loving it. Chickpeas are my favorite thing to add to a salad too. This looks SO fresh and delicious! Thank you for sharing it at Whimsical Wednesdays Link Party!
It is so simple, but so good! Thank you!
Congratulations on joining the CSA. It is always nice to be a part of something that is local and I have found that even though I may have the same thing in my garden, sometimes it is fun to get something from someone elses garden. This salad looks delicious. I don't know what it is about chickpeas but I have always loved them. My mother loved them and maybe that is where I grew to love them. Anyway, the salad looks wonderful. I hope that you enjoy your CSA produce all summer long!
I really like chickpeas too! I am excited to see what all the CSA has to offer this summer and hopefully we don't drown in tomatoes when the time comes! 😉
I've always wanted to try a CSA but struggled with that for the same reasons as you! With both of our work schedules so crazy this year, we did cut the garden in half, and I figured that would be incentive to get to more farmers markets. I never even thought about a CSA being the answer But, this salad sounds great! I have tried kale several different ways, and while I don't hate it, I just can't "love" it yet. I will add this recipe to the summer list!
We are enjoying the CSA so far. It has been fun trying new produce and having an excuse to try things in new ways!
Your salad recipes are seriously making me drool this week!
Yay! It's nice to prove to people we eat more than frosting and cake around here 😉
Pinning this for later. My kale is starting up well in the garden, and I just love chickpeas!
You are going to love this then!
Carlee, this sounds wonderful! A great way to get some chickpeas into Mr Delightful who thinks he doesn't like them!
My husband thinks he doesn't like some things either, but sometimes he's surprised! 😉
Hi Carlee, the other day I put a kilo of chickpeas in the slow cooker to cook and freeze for salads. I over cooked them and we now have enough hummous to last a lifetime (luckily it freezes well too). We don't get kale here, but this is a salad I would try with spinach. Lemon juice, garlic and olive oil are what are summer meals seem to be of!… The CSA sounds like a win-win situation, everyone's a winner.
xx
Ha! That happens and eat least hummous is delicious too! It would be great with any greens, you just wouldn't want to dress it so far in advance with more delicate greens.
YUM! I feel healthier just looking at this great salad!! Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Ha! It is healthy and delicious, the perfect combo!