Salads are so fantastic in the summer! Especially when you add the fresh citrus taste of an orange with the crisp crunch of kale, it’s beyond fantastic! This kale salad is super light and so refreshing! Perfect for that hot summer day! And summer is not over yet!!! This one is a crowd pleaser!
Just so you guys know….I’m in the process of updating my theme to my website so I promise it wont look like this long…so bear with me! Ok onto this salad! I’ve been trying to post this recipe for 7 hours! Yes 7 hours! I’ve had quite the technical issues today with my site. You may think that running a food website is easy….well let me tell you it’s not. There is SO much to this…oh my gosh! I swear, if my passion for food was not so strong, I’d be done…DUN done! When my website hiccups, I get so emotional…so upset over the smallest thing! I put so much into my work….ok ok ok…enough venting…now for real…onto this salad.
You first saw this salad recipe on Easypeazymealz.com about a month ago. I do some feature writing for her website so make sure to check it out! Ok, so let’s salads for a minute….the best thing about salads is that they are so versatile! And you can eat them all year long! Just endless yummy possibilities with salad recipes!! This one is so fantastic and perfect for summer! Citrus is the fruit of the summer and I’m all over some oranges right now! So I decided to make a new salad with navel oranges since they are in season. But, let me inform you about different types of oranges. Have you ever had a blood orange? They are REALLY good and they do really well in this salad! They are only in season around late spring, so make sure to try this salad with a blood orange next spring! For now, since naval are in season we are sticking to that!
Let’s talk ingredients for a minute. This salad is so simple because I’m using only the simplest ingredients! My philosophy is keep it simple! Sometimes, you just need a little simple in your life and that’s what this salad recipe is. Simple. Easy. YUMMY! All these ingredients can be bought at your local grocery store so no need to go on a wild goose hunt! With this recipe, you will be making your own homemade dressing. The dressing is full of flavor because you are using shallot, white balsamic vinegar, olive oil and fresh squeezed orange juice from your orange!
When making your vinaigrette, you’ll want to place all the ingredients in a tight jar and shake well. Put the dressing in the refrigerator for an hour so it can get a nice chill. After an hour, it will be ready to serve on your salad! This dressing will also store very nicely for a couple of weeks so you can continue to use it on your salads! The other key to making this salad is to remove the white pith from the oranges. I don’t know about you, but I hate the pith on oranges. It’s really simple to remove when using a paring knife so make sure you do this step! I always choke on the white strings and pith so I’m happy to remove that…plus it makes your salad “pop” in taste with all that pith gone. With the pith gone, you get this perfect bite of salad mixed a taste of fresh orange and nut from the slivered almonds. Just fabulous!
This one has become a family favorite and I know you are going to enjoy this recipe. It pairs so perfectly with so many summer dishes and it’s perfect for a summer BBQ! I take this one for lunch a lot because it pairs well with my Very Veggie Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Salad Sandwich or even leftovers from the night before! Super fresh and super nutritious!
You’re just going to love this one! This takes about 10 minutes to pull together and makes 4 servings. Enjoy this one down to the very last bite! Happy Eats!
- 1/2 Shallot peeled and minced
- 1 clove garlic peeled and minced
- 1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 teaspoon stone-ground mustard
- 3 Tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Pinch of fresh ground pepper
- 5-6 cups kale stems removed and chopped
- 2 Navel oranges
- 1/2 cup salted dry-roasted almonds roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Place all ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid.
- Shake well.
- Let dressing rest in the refrigerator at least an hour for flavors to develop.
- Remove from refrigerator, shake well before use.
- In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients.
- Add about half the dressing and toss well.
- Taste for seasoning, adding more oranges, salt and pepper if needed.
Perfect summer salad and it is such a beautiful presentation
Thank you!!
Wow, Amanda! That’s some serious dedication to get this salad recipe posted. However, after reading the deets, I can vouch that it was worth the effort. Sounds amazing and the perfect way to celebrate the flavors of summer and early fall citrus fruits. Yum!
Thank you!! It’s totally worth it and honestly didn’t take too long!
A new theme, huh? It sounds exciting and like a load of work! 🙂
This salad vinaigrette has all of the ingredients I am looking for to make a wonderful, tasty, side dish or lunch. Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh no Ben….no new theme now. This was published a couple years ago so my theme is in!!! So this vinaigrette dressing…it’s AMAZING!! Let me know how you like it!