Introducing this cozy baked kale salad with crispy quinoa. Aka one of my favorite cozy winter salads.
Think roasted kale, crispy quinoa, and toasted almonds, tossed in a sweet and creamy honey lemon vinaigrette. Like what more could you want?!
In terms of ingredients, this crispy kale salad recipe is one of my simplest salads yet. You’ll need a total of 9 ingredients, which includes salt.
It’s easy to make, takes under an hour to make (most of which is just bake time), and tastes phenomenal.
Plus, this simple baked kale salad saves super well and tastes even better the next day.
And for everyone who always asks, this salad tastes best served immediately when it’s warm and the quinoa is still crackling!
Ingredients You’ll Need For This Baked Kale Salad
- Dino kale: Any type of kale works, I just like this particular variety best.
- Quinoa: You can either cook fresh quinoa or use up any leftover quinoa you have on hand. You’ll need a total of 1 cup of dry quinoa if you’re cooking it fresh, or 3 cups of cooked quinoa if you have leftovers. It’ll look like an exorbitant amount of quinoa, but it’ll decrease in volume when it bakes.
- Almonds: If you can find toasted slivered almonds, get those, otherwise just use regular slivered almonds. They’re also called flaked almonds!
- Lemons: I specifically used Meyer lemons for the dressing – they’re a sweeter variety and go so well in the vinaigrette.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Honey: Feel free to use maple syrup to keep this salad vegan if you like.
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
Tips & Tricks
Just a few quick recipe notes to make this healthy baked kale salad perfectly!
- Bake the kale for no more than 8 minutes. This is the sweet spot for getting the kale crispy, but still keeping a little bit of chew in the leaves. Any longer and the kale will become super dry!
- Crank the oven to 500°F once the kale is done cooking to speed up the baking time for the quinoa. This will also make the quinoa extra crispy.
- Use an immersion blender or small blender to emulsify the vinaigrette. Trust me on this, a whisk won’t do it for this baked kale salad dressing. You need either an immersion blender or a small-capacity blender (like a NutriBullet) to properly emulsify the dressing.
- Bump up the protein in this salad by adding in cannellini beans. On its own, this salad already has a ton of protein from the quinoa (which happens to be a complete plant-protein). But I like tossing in a can of cannellini beans to bump up the protein and make this salad more filling.
- If you have any leftovers, store the salad in a glass tupperware in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat the salad on a parchment lined baking sheet at 350°F for 5-6 minutes (it reheats super fast) and toss with a little bit of extra dressing.
Even More Cozy Salad Recipes
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Baked Kale Salad With Crispy Quinoa
- Prep Time: 25
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Description
Introducing one of my favorite cozy winter salads. Think roasted kale, crispy quinoa, and toasted almonds, tossed in a sweet and creamy honey lemon vinaigrette. Like what more could you want?!
Ingredients
Kale Salad
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package instructions*
- 1 bunch dino kale, de-ribbed and finely chopped**
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- ½ cup sliced almonds (also called flaked almonds)
Honey Lemon Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 tbsp honey
- ¼ tsp kosher salt, plus more as needed
- ¼ tsp black pepper, plus more as needed
- Pinch of garlic powder
Instructions
- Move your oven rack to the top, preheat the oven to 450°F, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Next, prep the quinoa and kale.
- Add the cooked quinoa to one of the baking sheets and the kale to the other baking sheet. Drizzle both the quinoa and kale with olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt. Massage the kale until it’s decreased slightly in volume and toss the quinoa until each grain is coated with olive oil.
- Bake the kale and quinoa in the preheated oven for 8 minutes on the top rack, then remove the kale (it should be crispy but still have some bite) and set aside on the counter. Crank the oven temperature up to 500°F and continue to cook the quinoa for an additional 10-15 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Make sure to stir the quinoa 2-3 times when it’s baking to ensure it cooks evenly. Highly recommend tasting the quinoa each time you stir it, as it gets crispy super fast and you don’t want to overcook the quinoa.
- While the quinoa bakes, make the salad dressing. In a large glass, add in all the vinaigrette ingredients, and using an immersion blender, blend until emulsified and creamy, about 1 minute. You can also emulsify the dressing in a small-capacity blender like a NutriBullet. Adjust vinaigrette for salt.
- Add the baked kale, quinoa, and almonds to a large serving bowl. Pour over a generous amount of the dressing (I usually use half, but adjust as needed depending on your preference) and toss to combine. Serve immediately!
Notes
*Linking a video of mine here with a few tips for making fluffy quinoa.
**You’ll need a total of 5-6 cups of loosely packed chopped kale.
If using the cannellini beans do you crisp them as well or just add in preheated and soft?
I like to toss them in with the kale so they get slightly crisp + they’ll get coated in the olive and salt. But either way works!
Can you make this with Swiss Chard? Apparently my husband can’t tell the difference!
Haha, absolutely! It has a similar makeup to kale so it should work just as well – could need a little less time in the oven.