Kale salad with pepitas, dried cherries, cotija cheese, and lemon-parsley dressing is a wildly crunchy and nutritious healthy salad recipe.
How was your weekend? Are you enjoying all the daylight hours? Has it warmed up in your neck of the woods yet? We enjoyed 70-degree weather over here in No Winter’s Land, and it already feels like summer. Summer = bikinis = salad, yes?
I’ve been on a quest to copycat my three favorite kale salads from restaurants in town. Like I told ya last week in my recipe post for Copycat Trader Joe’s Curried Chicken Salad this is what we recipe developers do when we get bored of our own cooking.
We make Other People’s Recipes (OPR). A few months ago, I posted a Lemony Kale Salad with Parmesan Crisps (copycatted from Campo).
I then posted this Spicy Kale Caesar Salad with Roasted Garlic (copycatted from Bowl), and finally, I’m posting the Highway to Kale, from Laughing Planet. You guys it’s so full of goodies, I can hardly wait for you to eat it!
What is the kale is the Highway to Kale?
WELL.
Ingredients for This Kale Salad:
It involves lots of dino (lacinato) kale, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, and a little sprinkle sprinkle of cotija cheese on top.
Wrapped up in the most bangarang lemon-parsley dressing in all the land. The lemon-parsley dressing is the real clincher for this salad. It’s so flavorful and unique, plus did you know parsley is ridiculously good for you?
It’s high in Vitamin K, followed by Vitamins C and A, and is pegged as a cancer-fighting food (learn more about parsley here).
This bowl has all my favorite salad elements: The crunch, the sweet, the cream. Just put a ring on it, already!
You guys, I have a sneaking suspicion you’re going to addict yourself to this salad. Unlike most of my salad recipes, there’s zero cooking involved. The thing goes down real easy, and need I tempt you further by telling you this healthy salad will clean you right out? It will. Super digestive stimulant right here!
Can we talk about your digestive system a little more? Just kidding, that’s awkward.
More Nutritious Salad Recipes:
- Kale Salad with Blood Orange, Avocado, and Kombucha Vinaigrette
- Chili Chicken Kale Salad with Shredded Beets and Cinnamon Dijon Vinaigrette
- Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Thai Chicken Kale Chopped Salad with Mango and Peanut Dressing
We’re on the highway to kale!
Highway to Kale Salad
Ingredients
Lemon-Parsley Dressing:
- 1 cup grapeseed or olive oil
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
- 1 lemon zested
- ½ cup flat leaf parsley leaves roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
Kale Salad:
- 8 ounces lacinato and red leaf kale thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds pepitas
- 1 cup shredded carrot
- ½ cup dried cherries
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese grated + more for serving*
Instructions
Prepare the Lemon-Parsley Dressing:
- Add all ingredients for the dressing to a small blender or food processor. Blend until completely smooth.
Prepare the salad:
- Add all ingredients for the salad to a large serving bowl. Add desired amount of lemon-parsley dressing and toss well to coat. Serve heaping bowlfuls of salad with additional cotija cheese grated on top.
Bad news bears for the.boy, but if it were socially acceptable to marry kale salad, I probably would have. Just saying. Especially THIS ONE which has everything fun in it. It’s like a party salad. Totally a thing.
Oh I bet this is delicious!!!
I am seriously craving this salad right now. It looks so full of flavor and nutritious stuff. Love the dressing!
Heck yeah, the dressing’s where it’s at! Thanks Julia!
That lemon parsley dressing sounds divine! I love the no cooking for this salad and it looks like it would make a fantastic lunch. This one’s going to be made real soon.
Clearly I am living in the wrong place because no restaurants around me make kale salads like this. I guess I’ll just have to use your recipe and make my own!!
I’ve been looking for an awesome kale salad recipe and with the creamy notes this one really looks like a winner to me! Pinning it for later!
-Kelsey
I have to make this kale salad. I am ALL about power salads like this for weeknight dinners.. and definitely will be making it!
I’m all about copy cat recipes, especially when they look like this salad! I can totally see myself getting addicted.
‘Tis a truly marvelous salad 😉 Lemme know if you try it!
This salad looks perfect! I need a green side for St. Patricks potluck tomorrow! I’m going to make this!
I know, it was cah-razy hot this weekend! That’s okay though, I’m ready for it. Bring on the bikinis and kale salads, baby! I could happily crunch my way through this one all summer long. It looks fabulous! OPR FTW! 😉
This looks so good! I love all that cheese on top – yum!
I really love salad… I like this recipe… Thank a lot..Healthy Recipes
I want this bowl on my lunch table ASAP! I love everything about his recipe: ingredients, kale, dressing.
I’m totalllly guilty of the OPR syndrome. Sometimes things just get boooring, am I right? But this salad man, I’m about to plant my face right in that bowl.
I’ll drive this highway ALL DAY LONG. Gorgeous salad. I think you must have made this just for me! 🙂