This Kale Caesar salad is delicious and full of flavor. Made with a traditional Caesar dressing filled with fresh and crunchy croutons, and shaved parmesan. It’s perfect as an elegant, but healthy side dish or main course.
Why This Kale Caesar Salad Is So Good!
- This Kale Caesar Salad with homemade Caesar dressing is creamy, rich, and tangy.
- It’s filled with crunchy bites of fresh croutons and slices of parmesan.
- The homemade Caesar dressing is effortlessly made by processing the ingredients in a food processor!
How To Make Kale Caesar Salad
- Preheat the oven to 375°. Toss torn bread with olive oil on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Bake, tossing occasionally, until golden, about 10-15 minutes. After baking, transfer croutons to a bowl and set aside.
- Make the dressing: roughly chop the anchovy fillets and garlic. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor. Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, and mustard.
- Process until anchovies and garlic are finely chopped. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the oil, drop by drop. After about half of the oil is incorporated, the mixture should become thick. At this point, slowly add in the oil- one tablespoon at a time.
- Once all the oil is incorporated, add in the parmesan and pulse once or twice to combine.
- *See Notes for other dressing options, including how to make the dressing by hand, in an immersion blender, or using prepared mayonnaise.
- Skip the tongs and use your hands to gently coat the kale with the dressing. Top with croutons and shaved parmesan to serve.
Top Tips For Making Kale Caesar Salad
- Use an immersion blender: For a super easy Caesar salad dressing, you can use the same ingredients, but process with an immersion blender, following the steps in my Whole30 Caesar Dressing recipe.
- Use prepared mayonnaise: Out of a neutral oil and eggs? Replace the egg yolks and oil with 3/4 cup mayonnaise.
- Make it vegan or vegetarian: Making Caesar salad dressing vegetarian or vegan is surprisingly simple. Just follow the substitutions on the Minimalist Baker’s 5-Minute Vegan Caesar Dressing recipe.
- Making great croutons: Tearing instead of cutting the bread helps gives the croutons their crispy texture and provides lots of nooks and crannies for the dressing to fill.
- Tender kale: Use your hands to incorporate the dressing and “massage” the leaves during this process. This helps produce more tender raw kale leaves.
- Topping the salad: Use parmesan cheese shaved with a vegetable peeler to top your kale Caesar salad. The homemade Caesar dressing is the star of the show, and grated parmesan can take away from the flavor and make the dressing too clumpy.
More Salads And Dressings You’ll Love:
- Whole30 Caesar Dressing (Dairy-Free Caesar Dressing)
- Whole30 Ranch Dressing (“Dump Ranch,” Paleo, Dairy-Free)
- Healthy Chicken Cobb Salad (Dairy Free, Whole30)
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Kale Caesar Salad
A kale Caesar salad that's full of flavor, made with homemade Caesar dressing and croutons. An elegant but healthy side dish or main course.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf country bread torn into pieces, about 3 cups
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper freshly ground, to taste
- 6 anchovy fillets packed in oil, drained
- 1 garlic clove small
- 2 eggs yolks large
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice fresh, plus more to taste
- 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons neutral oil like avocado oil
- 3 tablespoons parmesan finely grated
- parmesan shaved for serving, see notes
- 1 large bunch kale thick stems removed and very roughly chopped, about 8 cups, See Note
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°. Toss torn bread with olive oil on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Bake, tossing occasionally, until golden, about 10-15 minutes. After baking, transfer croutons to a bowl and set aside.
Make the dressing: roughly chop the anchovy fillets and garlic. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor. Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, and mustard.
Process until anchovies and garlic are finely chopped. With the food processor running, very slowly drizzle in the oil, drop by drop. After about half of the oil is incorporate, the mixture should become thick. At this point, you can slowly add in the oil, one tablespoon at a time. Once all oil is incorporated, add in parmesan and pulse once or twice to combine. See Notes for other dressing options, including how to make the dressing by hand, in an immersion blender, or using prepared mayonnaise.
Skip the tongs and use your hands to gently coat the kale with the dressing. Top with croutons and shaved Parmesan to serve.
Recipe Notes
- Use an immersion blender: For super easy Caesar salad dressing, you can use the same ingredients, but process with an immersion blender, following the steps in my Whole30 Caesar Dressing recipe.
- Use prepared mayonnaise: Out of a neutral oil and eggs? Replace the egg yolks and oil with 3/4 cup mayonnaise.
- Make it vegan or vegetarian: Making Caesar salad dressing vegetarian or vegan is surprisingly simple. Just follow the substitutions on the Minimalist Baker’s 5-Minute Vegan Caesar Dressing recipe.
- Making great croutons: Tearing instead of cutting the bread helps gives the croutons their crispy texture and provides lots of nooks and crannies for the dressing to fill.
- Tender kale: Use your hands to incorporate the dressing and “massage” the leaves during this process. This helps produce more tender raw kale leaves.
- Topping the salad: Use parmesan cheese shaved with a vegetable peeler to top your kale Caesar salad. The homemade Caesar dressing is the star of the show, and grated parmesan can take away from the flavor and make the dressing too clumpy.
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