Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. We ended up at my in-laws over the long weekend and I felt like I was on an episode of Iron Chef. I was tasked with making something to eat with the ingredients from the kitchen. My ingredients included cooked lentils, cooked mixed grains, kale, tomato, cucumber, radish, capers, oranges and lemons. I quickly thought about putting them all into the same one-dish meal, but ended up making a veg-heavy kale salad as a side and used the lentils and grains separately (to be shared later).
The salad turned out very well. I loosely based it on Ottolenghi’s Lettuce Salad, swapping the lettuce/radicchio blend for massaged kale and added in cucumber for crunch. I like bright acidic dressings with kale and the lemon-caper dressing worked well. My mother-in-law added the cute radish rose as a garnish.
We had a bit of the salad to take away as leftovers, which worked out well since it is a kale salad. I love how well it can keep for a few days. Enjoy!
PS. I am sharing this with this month’s ExtraVeg, No Waste Food Challenge and Credit Crunch Munch (hosted by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All).
Spring Kale Salad with Radish and a Lemon-Caper Dressing
Adapted from Ottolenghi’s Perfect Lettuce Salad via Kalyn’s Kitchen
1 head of kale, leaves stripped and thinly sliced
3 radishes, thinly sliced + extra for garnish (can make into roses)
1/2 cucumber, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 large tomatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 green onion, thinly sliced (green and white parts)
2-3 tbsp capers
1/2 tsp caper brine
1 lemon, juiced (~3 tbsp)
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp pureed garlic
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1. In a large bowl, place chopped kale.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the dressing: caper brine, lemon juice, salt, olive oil, garlic and mustard.
3. Add dressing to the kale and massage it into the greens for 5 minutes until it it a brilliant green and wilted to half its original size.
4. Stir in the remainder of the ingredients. Garnish with a radish rose.
Serves 6.
the taste space 
What a lovely healthy salad, just what we need after the excess of Easter! Thank you for a great #CreditCrunchMunch entry:-)
Fresh and full of lavour – a salad I could eat after a period of heavy feasting! Thanks for linking up with #creditcrunchmunch
[…] This was a quick and easy main course salad that paired well with the spring kale salad which contained all the vegetables. […]
I’m not a fan of radish in general, but there isn’t much in here. It sounds like a really good salad! I like how you added caper brine to the dressing. Yum!
Lovely recipe – I love how frugal it is to use that caper brine too! Thanks for sharing with #ExtraVeg & #CreditCrunchMunch
I will have to try massaging kale in a salad! I’m not adventurous enough with kale – I usually add it to soups an stews but with summer (hopefully) on the horizon, salads are definitely the way I’ll be going!
Loving the sound of this! I’m a big fan of kale – this is such a great way to jazz it up! Thanks for sharing with the No Waste Food Challenge 🙂