Kale Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

Tender kale greens with roasted butternut squash and crisp tart apples. Tossed with salty feta and roasted pecans in a 4-ingredient maple vinaigrette. Enjoy this fall kale salad all season long!

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Beautiful Fall Kale Salad that Has it All!

A rustic, cold-weather kale salad, with cubes of roasted butternut squash, tart apples, red onion, feta, and toasted pecans tossed in a maple vinaigrette. It’s loaded with so much texture, flavor, and gorgeous color!

It’s a salad that was inspired by our Butternut Squash and Cranberry Quinoa Salad. 

It requires no special tools or techniques. All you do is roast some butternut squash and toss it with the rest of the ingredients.

You can prepare the squash a few days in advance and keep covered in the refrigerator. The maple vinaigrette is only four pantry staple ingredients that can be whisked together just before serving.

Secret to Delicious Kale Salad

The secret to any delicious kale salad is massaged kale leaves. Kale has a strong and earthy taste. The leaves are dry, tough, crunchy, and strong-tasting.

But when you massage the leaves in vinaigrette (or simply olive oil, lemon, or vinegar), it softens the leaves and reduces the bitterness of the kale. 

For the maple vinaigrette, you’ll need olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and Dijon mustard. Whisk together and add to the salad.

How to Massage Kale Leaves

• Tear the kale off ribs: Tear the leafy part of the kale off the ribs. Discard the ribs and chop up the leaves into small, bite-size pieces. Place the leaves in a large bowl.

Katya’s TIP: Save time and pick up a bag of chopped kale from the supermarket.

• Add the vinaigrette: Pour half of the maple vinaigrette over the kale leaves and start crunching them between your hands. The trick here is not to over-massage. Rub the kale leaves together between your fingers, until they just start to wilt.
• Toss in everything else: Transfer the massaged kale leaves to a serving platter or bowl and layer on the butternut squash, apples, onion, pecans, and feta. Drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette.

Topping Variations

Kale works with a variety of flavors so you can customize this salad to suit your taste. Here are more kale salad toppings to try:

• Pumpkin seeds
• Sliced almonds
• Walnuts
• Goat cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Cranberries
• Cooked bacon

And grilled chicken tenders or grilled garlic shrimp for protein.

How Long Does Kale Salad Last?

This salad is best enjoyed the same day. Even though the kale leaves hold up for up to 3 days the other toppings tend to get really soft when refrigerated.

More Kale Salads to Try

Enjoy these other fall kale salad recipes:

• Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Cranberries
• Chopped Kale Salad with Peanut-Chili Vinaigrette
• Kale Avocado and Grapefruit Salad
• Kale Caesar Salad

If you try Kale Salad with Maple Vinaigrette, don’t forget to leave feedback and a rating.

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