The best kale salad on the face of the planet: Lemony kale salad with parmesan crisps and a sunny side up egg. This incredibly simple recipe features delicious flavors for a salad worthy of putting on repeat!

At some point between writing my cookbook, Let Them Eat Kale!, and…well…now, I began a hot pursuit of the best kale salad in all the land.

After trying every kale salad at restaurants in town, I settled on my personal favorite.

Very unfortunately, the restaurant no longer exists, but thankfully I took the time to re-create it in a way I think closely mimics the original version.

This simple kale salad includes fresh kale tossed in a simple lemony dressing with a generous amount of parmesan cheese crisps scattered throughout. I enjoy it with a poached egg, fried egg, or sunny side up egg on top.

Easy to customize, rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken are excellent options for adding more protein for a more substantial meal.

Let’s chat about the simple ingredients.

Ingredients for Lemony Kale Salad:

Fresh Kale: Pick up a head of kale. Any kind of kale works here! I like using Lacinato kale, also known as Tuscan kale, because I personally think it tastes less bitter than some of the other types of kale. Nevertheless, pick your favorite.

Dressing Ingredients: Olive oil, fresh lemon juice, stone ground mustard or dijon mustard, fresh garlic, and salt. This combination of ingredients makes a tangy, rich dressing, perfect for coating the kale leaves.

Parmesan Cheese: All we need to make the parmesan crisps is Parmesan cheese!

Egg: An optional protein addition. Serve the salad with an egg cooked to your preference, or add any kind of cooked chicken.

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Have you ever had parmesan crisps? They’re dope, mates. Real dope. And they’re easy to make.

Here’s what you do: Plop piles of fresh grated parmesan on a parchment-lined baking sheet, like so.

How to Make Cheese Crisps:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Grate 5 tablespoons worth of aged parmesan cheese
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
Measure 1 tablespoon of parmesan cheese and place it in a pile on a baking sheet. Repeat for remaining cheese
Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, or until browned and crispy.
Allow parmesan crisps to sit on the hot baking sheet a couple of minutes before gently peeling them off of the parchment. Use your hands to break the parmesan crisps up into small bits for adding to the salad.

Bake parmesan cheese at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 5-8 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and reaches your desired level of crisp. I typically bake mine on the lower end so that the parmesan crisps still have a bit of a chew to them.

BOOM! A new obsession for cheese lovers.

Once finished, break up the cheese crisps into smaller pieces and add them to the salad. This is, in my opinion, what makes this salad the bomb diggity.

How to Make Lemony Kale Salad:

Rinse the kale well, then chop the leaves, discarding the stems. Add the raw (or blanched) chopped kale to a medium-sized serving bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, mustard, and salt until well-combined.
Pour the dressing over the kale and toss until everything is well coated.
Add the parmesan crisps and serve with a poached, fried, or sunny side up egg.

Lemony Kale Salad with Parmesan Crisps and Sunny Side up Egg

And that’s it! A quick, easy, unique kale salad recipe, which might just become your new favorite kale salad.

If you’re a big fan of kale, try out one of my other kale salad recipes.

More Kale Salad Recipes:

What’s in your favorite kale salad?