summer kale salad

Beautiful summer kale salad tossed with fresh strawberries, sweet corn, creamy avocado and a delicious cilantro lime dressing. This fresh chopped kale salad is wonderful as-is and the perfect base for your favorite proteins! Enjoy as a seasonal side dish or lunch all summer long.

Summer Glow Chopped Kale Salad

For the dressing:

cilantro lime dressing

For the salad:

kale,

strawberries

avocado, sliced or diced

corn, raw, grilled

feta crumbles

red onion

Optional protein add-ins:

bacon, optional

chicken breasts

First make your cilantro lime dressing. You can find the recipe here.

Add your finely chopped kale to a bowl. Remember you want to REALLY chop the kale very well. Pour the dressing over the kale and use tongs or clean hands to massage the dressing into the kale; you REALLY want to get it mixed well, so toss together for a few minutes to help break down the kale. Allow the dressing to sit with the kale for 15 minutes or longer to help the kale marinate with the dressing.

Finally add your strawberries, avocado, corn, feta crumbles, sliced red onion, pistachios to the bowl with the kale. Give it a gentle toss with tongs to combine everything. Serves 4. Salad will keep well in the fridge for 1-3 days.

Blueberries, kale, and walnuts pair perfectly in this delicious vegan blueberry summer kale salad that is packed with antioxidants. Topped with a simple blueberry vinaigrette that you&#39;ll want to add to every salad this summer.

Blueberry Summer Kale Salad

quinoa

water broth

walnuts, chopped

curly or lacinato kale, chopped

olive oil

blueberries

vegan feta cheese

balsamic vinegar

100% pure maple syrup

sea salt and black pepper

Add quinoa to a fine mesh strainer and rinse well with cold water.

Combine the quinoa and water/broth in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then cover and turn heat down to low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is softened. Fluff with a fork and set aside.

While the quinoa cooks, wash the kale, cut out the stems, and chop into thin strips. Massage with 1 teaspoon of olive oil to soften leaves.

To prepare the dressing, pour all the ingredients into a blender. (If your blender has a single serving cup, that works best.) Puree just until smooth.

To assemble the salad, put the kale into a bowl, top with blueberries, quinoa, walnuts, and vegan feta cheese. Pour dressing over top and toss to coat. Season with dash of sea salt and black pepper to serve.

Not your average kale salad! This deli-worthy quinoa kale salad is made in just 30 minutes with 10 ingredients. It’s sweet and tangy, lemony, crunchy, and packed with wholesome ingredients!

Lemony Quinoa Kale Salad with Crispy Chickpeas

sun-dried tomatoes ((or kalamata olives))

kale

sunflower seeds ((we like roasted unsalted))

goat cheese crumbles

(15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

olive oil (or avocado oil)

day old sturdy bread, torn into ~1-inch pieces

avocado oil ((or olive oil))

healthy pinch each sea salt and black pepper

lemon juice ((freshly squeezed))

maple syrup

Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (218 C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. If using sun-dried tomatoes that are hard/dry, soak in hot water for 5-10 minutes, then drain.

Meanwhile, if you don’t already have cooked quinoa, prepare at this time (stovetop directions follow, or you can make it in the Instant Pot). In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup dry quinoa and 1 cup water (1/2 cup dry quinoa yields ~1 ½ cups cooked // adjust amount if altering default number of servings). Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and continue cooking for ~15-18 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy (the little curly “tails” of the quinoa should be visible). Remove from the heat and set aside (covered) while you make the salad. The quinoa will get even fluffier as it sits!

Add drained, rinsed, and thoroughly dried chickpeas to the baking sheet (scoot to one side if you plan to make the croutons). Then toss with oil, salt, and pepper.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly crispy and golden brown. If making the croutons, add the bread to the other half of the baking sheet around the 8-minute mark and toss with oil, salt, and pepper. Croutons should bake for a total of 7-10 minutes, or until slightly browned and crusty. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside (both croutons and chickpeas will get crispier as they cool).

To a large mixing bowl, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, maple syrup, Dijon, salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine. Taste and adjust flavors as needed, adding more lemon for tartness, maple syrup for sweetness, and salt and/or pepper for flavor. Next add the chopped kale and massage it in the dressing for a few minutes to soften the kale and remove some bitterness.

Add the cooked quinoa, sun dried tomatoes or kalamata olives, sunflower seeds, and goat cheese (optional). Toss to combine. Once the chickpeas and croutons (optional) have cooled slightly, add them to the salad and stir to distribute. Enjoy!

Store leftovers refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days. If not consuming the salad immediately, we suggest storing the chickpeas and croutons separately at room temperature until just before serving to help maintain their crispiness.

Tweaked the recipe a bit to use what I had on hand. Swapped mild banana pepper rings for sun-dried tomatoes and vegan feta for goat cheese. The resulting dish is absolutely outstanding! I’ll be making this again and again. 

Thanks and love ya, MinBa!

The dressing on the was excellent and I loved all of the different flavors in this salad. I am currently obsessed with the vegan goat cheese. It adds an excellent tartness to salad or toast.

I don’t even like kale or salads in general usually and I LOVED this recipe! So good and will make again. I made my quinoa in the rice cooker (super easy, follow same amounts and put it on white rice setting) and used a vegan feta instead of goat cheese. 10/10!!

I made this tonight and loved it! I just happened to have some stale sourdough, and I had homegrown meyer lemons so I added the zest and the juice.

So delicious!  I took this to work over several days, easy to prep quinoa, seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese together then add in prepped dressed kale morning you need it Carried roasted chickpeas and croutons separately and added in at last minute. Super easy and the kale benefits from advance dressing. Lunch box friendly, thanks!

I was in a bit of a rush, so I didn't have time to make quinoa, and I also used packaged roasted chickpeas to save time. I had made a vegan feta cheese, so I used that in place of goat cheese, and I did not include croutons. Even with those omissions/changes, it was still a really good salad! Simple and tasty. It also made for more servings (more like 5-6) than the recipe indicated--but no complaints on that front! Would definitely make this again and try experimenting with the things I omitted this time. I bet avocado would be good in there, too.

This is a beautiful dish and I made it this week. I ended up adding som yellow raisins as I think the flavours needed a bit of sweetness to be balanced.

This salad took a long time to assemble so I was like it better be real frickin' good and boy, did it deliver! :) I used spinach rather than kale and made gf croutons. I also just ate my sundried tomatoes dry - they absorb the salad dressing and so they do get a little soaked that way! Dana hits it out of the park again!

This was tonight’s dinner, so refreshing on a hot summer night! The dressing was so simple, yet complimented the kale and chickpeas, and the tanginess of the sun-dried tomatoes…yum! I found my sunflower seeds to be stale, so I substituted with sliced almonds. I would also have to the say the croutons are non-negotiable; they added a wonderful, savory texture and crunch to the salad. Will definitely be making this one again, most likely with tofu steaks!

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The most viewed summer kale salad recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine

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Summer Glow Chopped Kale Salad

Blueberry Summer Kale Salad

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Top 3 summer kale salad recipes from across the web

The most viewed summer kale salad recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Summer Glow Chopped Kale Salad

Blueberry Summer Kale Salad

Lemony Quinoa Kale Salad with Crisp...

The most viewed summer kale salad recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine