Transform raw kale into an easy and delicious side salad with warm bacon and a citrus dressing. Top with your favorite salad mix-ins, such as tomatoes, feta, seeds and nuts, and dried fruit.

We can grow kale almost year round in our climate, so it turns up in many different forms during the week. This kale salad with bacon is my family’s favorite kale salad recipe. I make the basic recipe and then let everyone just add their own toppings.

How to Massage Kale

Some people are turned off by kale salad because mature kale leaves tend to be very firm. One way to get around this is to just use immature kale leaves in salads and save the mature ones for cooking. But one of the things I like about growing kale is that I can plant it once and harvest all season long. So only using immature leaves for salad doesn’t work for me.

What does work for me is to massage the raw kale. It takes an extra minute or two but it totally worth it.

To massage kale, remove the stems and chop or tear the kale leaves into pieces. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and drizzle with a little olive oil. Gently rub the olive oil and salt onto the kale pieces until they are all coated and start to turn a dark green.

In this easy kale and bacon salad recipe, you’ll mix the salt with lemon and orange juice and use that to massage the raw kale.

Ingredients

• 5-6 kale leaves, stalks removed and chopped
• 2 green onions – chopped
• 1 large tomatoes – diced
• juice from 1/2 a lemon ( I used 1 ice cube of frozen lemon juice)
• juice from 1 small orange (I used a Valencia orange)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 strips of bacon – fried and chopped

How to make Easy Kale Salad

Fry the bacon until crispy. Set aside. Put lemon and orange juice in a small bowl with salt. In larger bowl put chopped kale. Drizzle the juice over the kale and using your hands rub it into the kale. Add bacon and (here’s the good part) the bacon grease. Mix well. Add any additional mix-ins when serving.

Mix-ins for Kale Salad

Here are some of the things we like to mix in with our kale salad. I just let each family member choose what mix-ins they want when they fill their plate instead of actually mixing these into the salad in the bowl. This keeps everyone happy.

• Chopped tomatoes
• Grated carrots
• Grated beets
• Chopped green onions (or red onions)
• Feta
• Dried cranberries
• Sunflower Seeds
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Chopped Pecans

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Yield: 6 cups

Kale and Bacon Salad

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In this kale and bacon salad, the kale is gently massaged with a citrus dressing that tenderizes the kale. You'll love how easy and delicious this salad is.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 5-6 kale leaves, stalks removed and chopped
• 2 green onions – chopped
• 1 large tomatoes – diced
• juice from 1/2 a lemon ( I used 1 ice cube of frozen lemon juice)
• juice from 1 small orange (I used a Valencia orange)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 strips of bacon – fried and chopped

Instructions

Fry the bacon until crispy. Set aside.

Put lemon and orange juice in a small bowl with salt. In larger bowl put chopped kale.

Drizzle the juice over the kale and using your hands rub it into the kale.

Add tomatoes and green onions.

Add bacon and (here’s the good part) the bacon grease. Mix well.

Notes

Here are some of the things we like to mix in with our kale salad. I just let each family member choose what mix-ins they want when they fill their plate instead of actually mixing these into the salad in the bowl. This keeps everyone happy.

• Chopped tomatoes
• Grated carrots
• Grated beets
• Chopped green onions (or red onions)
• Feta
• Dried cranberries
• Sunflower Seeds
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Chopped Pecans

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