Winter Kale Super Salad is a gorgeous salad perfect for the holidays. It is full of nutrients, and fantastic flavor, and it makes enough to feed a crowd.
This Winter Kale Super Salad brings a balance to my holiday diet. I am the first to admit I love the holidays because of all the sugar. From pies, candies, cookies, and cakes, I am one happy camper. While I could literally eat sweets several times a day (and I do), I love to have a balance. Literally, my body starts to crave it. Honestly, I feel better as well.
Just because you are making a salad, it doesn’t mean that it has to be a bore. It can be delicious and gorgeous simultaneously. No sense to make guest shudder at the thought of kale and Brussels sprouts. You can throw together a bowl full of nutritious food and have it look and taste divine.
This Winter Kale Super Salad is my new favorite. I made this large batch for a family Christmas party, so I added goat cheese to add some white for a more Christmas-y effect. My hubby loves it with it, but I think that it is even better without it.
I actually prefer to make this a few hours beforehand because I love letting all of the veggies “marinate” in the dressing.
NOTE: This dressing isn’t your typical dressing – it is thick, not runny. But once you toss all the ingredients together you’ll taste it trust me. This salad will become one of your favorites too this holiday season. XOXO San
How do you make Winter Kale Super Salad?
- For the dressing, over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan. Add finely sliced shallots and cook for at least 5 minutes or until tender.
- Add garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Then add chopped cranberries, red wine vinegar, honey, remaining tablespoon of olive oil and lemon juice and zest, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
- Remove from heat, set aside until you are ready to combine with the salad.
- In a large salad bowl add kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, pomegranate seeds, apples, pistachios, and bacon. Toss to combine. Add dressing and goat cheese if desired and toss to combine.
- Serve immediately or set in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- This Winter Kale Super Salad can be made 2-3 hours in advance, I love the dressing “marinating” the kale and everything else.
Don’t forget to pin this to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Winter Kale Super Salad
Ingredients
Dressing
- 2+1 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 shallots
- 1 1/2 cups chopped dried cranberries
- 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 whole lemon juice and zested
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Salad Mix
- 12 cups kale chopped
- 24 Brussel sprouts thinly sliced/shredded
- 3 small heads of broccoli finely chopped
- 1 pomegranate use all the seeds
- 3 apples I used Honeycrisp, chopped
- 1 cup pistachios
- 1 1/2 cups bacon bites I used fresh bacon, cook and roughly chopped
Optional Topping
- 8 ounces crumbled goat cheese
Instructions
Dressing
- Over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan. Add finely sliced shallots and cook for at least 5 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat, set aside until you are ready to combine salad.
- Add garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Then add chopped cranberries, red wine vinegar, honey, remaining tablespoon of olive oil and lemon juice and zest, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
- Remove from heat, set aside until you are ready to combine with the salad.
Salad
- In a large salad bowl add kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, pomegranate seeds, apples, pistachios, and bacon. Toss to combine. Add dressing and goat cheese if desired and toss to combine.
- Serve immediately or set in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This Winter Kale Super Salad can be made 2-3 hours in advance, I love the dressing “marinating” the kale and everything else.
Video
Notes
This post may contain affiliate links. See my Full Disclosure for further details.
You don’t mention garlic in your ingredient list but do so in your cooking instructions… How much garlic???
3 garlic cloves minced.
Help! This looks so fantastic BUT there are just the 2 of us! Can you please scale this down for me??!!?? (Every time I try, it’s not looking right!)
Towards the end of the salad directions, it mentions adding goat cheese. Any thoughts on how much that is?
I love all the goodies in this salad! So much flavor!
This winter kale salad looks amazing!!
I just made the Winter Kale Super Salad. This is very good!!!! I made as instructed and winged it on the garlic by adding two cloves. I don’t care for Brussel Sprouts so I grated them instead of slicing. My husband and I both really liked this salad and will make it again. Thanks for the recipe.
Nancy, did you make the full amount as shown? How many people would you say it would feed as a side salad? Or, how much did you scale back for just the 2 of you? Thinking of making for Thanksgiving as a side salad, but I don’t want to make too much! Thanks for any insight.
Cindy – it makes a large salad to feed a crowd. How many people are you serving this for. I make this salad as a side for our holiday get togethers and it feeds a minimum of 20 as a side salad. I hope that is helpful. If you have kids and etc. It will go farther. As for a party of 10 I would cut it in half or even a 3rd – especially if there are many other sides. San
That is VERY helpful – – thank you! Will have 10, and few of them picky would may not give a taste. I’ll probably cut in 1/2 or 1/3. I can’t wait to try it; it sounds fabulous!
I made this yesterday and it was great! It mentions garlic in the instructions but not in the ingredient list so I used 3 cloves. I really wasn’t sure how the dressing would be but it was all very tasty! Also, I didn’t have pomegranate seeds so I used blueberries instead.
I just want to say I’ve been getting rave reviews for this salad!! Thank you!!
So glad you are enjoying this recipe!
I cant get enough of this salad. It’s always so good!!
Thank you, I’m happy you enjoyed it!
Winter Kale Super Salad is seriously making me hungry!
A super salad idea for the holidays or any time you are craving a really great salad full of flavor!
So glad you like it! Thank you!
This is the perfect flavor combo! Love kale salads…especially in winter!
Thank you! It really is perfect for this time of year!
This salad has all of my favorites! I especially love the pistachios and pomegranates!
It really is full of yummy flavors! Enjoy!
All the Fall flavors in this salad! Looks so tasty!
Thank you!