Chopped Kale and Cauliflower Salad

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This chopped kale and cauliflower salad is an easy salad that makes a great main dish or side. With the kale, cauliflower, and the delicious lemon tahini dressing, you will want to eat this often.

This is my go to chopped kale salad because it has so much flavor thanks to the roasted cauliflower, nuts, and seeds and a delicious lemon tahini dressing. The inspiration for this recipe came from a local restaurant here in Austin, TX called Swedish Hill.

This kale salad will get you excited to eat salad and the best part is how healthy it is. The kale salad dressing that this chopped salad is tossed in, is so delicious too and you can use it on any salad recipe.

Ingredients You Will Need

For the kale salad:

Curly kale (about 7 ounces). I prefer this type of kale because it is fluffy and holds the dressing better.
Cauliflower. The cauliflower is roasted in the oven before being added to the salad. It is so good! or one small bag from the store.
Salted Sunflower Seeds.
Salted Slivered Almonds.

For the dressing:

Lemon
Olive oil
Tahini (a sesame seed paste that you can find in the International section of the grocery store)
Balsamic vinegar
Dijon mustard
Kosher salt
Sweet paprika

How to make this kale and cauliflower salad

cauliflower for kale salad — 1. Roast your cauliflower

chopped kale — 1. Roast your cauliflower

Tips

I do recommend making this salad as the recipe states for the first time. After that, there are some great additions that would complement the flavors of this kale salad really well.

I also like to massage the kale well to really get the dressing to adhere to the kale.
Make sure to chop the kale very small. This is a chopped salad which is all about small bites of all the ingredients at one time fitting onto the fork.
Toss everything together really well. This helps make sure all the ingredients are well blended and you get a little of everything in each bite.

My favorite additions to this kale salad

You can add dried cranberries and make a kale and cranberry salad. This is great for the holidays.
Roasted vegetables to increase the amount of veggies in the salad.
Broken pita chips which would go so well tossed in the salad with the tahini dressing. Breaking pita chips makes for a fancier crouton and it is so delicious in salads.

Faqs

Can you save the salad once it has been tossed in the dressing?

Yes. Kale is very sturdy and can hold the dressing for at least 24 hours before softening. I wouldn't keep the salad that has been tossed in the dressing any longer than that.

What if you cannot find the curly kale?

If you cannot find curly kale, the smoother kale (also known as lacinato kale) makes a great substitute.

More Kale Recipes

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

This kale and cauliflower salad is such an amazing recipe. With the kale, cauliflower, and the delicious lemon tahini dressing, you will want to eat this often.

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Total Time25

Servings: servings

Author: Melissa Oleary

Ingredients

Salad

7 ounces Curly Kale
10 ounces Cauliflower
2 tablespoon Salted and roasted sunflower seeds
2 tablespoon Roasted and salted slivered almonds
1 tablespoon olive oil for cauliflower
¼ teaspoon kosher salt for cauliflower

Dressing

⅓ cup Tahini paste You can find this in the International section of the grocery store.
3 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
2 teaspoon Honey
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
zest of one lemon

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.
Add your cauliflower florets to a large sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and add ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt.
10 ounces Cauliflower, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil
Toss well so all of the cauliflower is coated with olive oil.
Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to brown.
Remove and set aside.
Take your kale and pull the leaves off of the stems.
7 ounces Curly Kale
Stack the kale leaves and finely chop them. You may need to re-stack the leaves and re-chop to get the chopped kale nice and small.
In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add your almonds and sunflower seeds and roast for about 5 minutes, flipping every minute or so.
2 tablespoon Salted and roasted sunflower seeds, 2 tablespoon Roasted and salted slivered almonds
Once the seeds are roasted, remove them from the heat on to a cutting board.
Finely chop the almonds and sunflower seeds until they are almost ½ their original size.
Now add your kale, cauliflower, nuts and seeds to a large platter and toss well.

Making the dresing

Add all of the ingredients for the dressing into a medium bowl.
⅓ cup Tahini paste, 3 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard, 2 teaspoon Honey, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika, zest of one lemon
Whisk them all together.
Pour into a serving container and serve alongside the chopped kale salad.

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