The Emerald Kale Salad with Sesame Miso Vinaigrette might just be the best restaurant kale salad out there, and this recipe is a near perfect dupe. The only difference is that you get to eat it in your sweats, in the comfort of your own home. Shall we?
What is Emerald Kale Salad? | Ingredients | What Kind of Kale Best for Salad? | How to Make the Hillstone Kale Salad Dupe | Is Hillstone Kale Salad Healthy?
Is this the Hillstone Emerald Kale Salad Copycat?
How do you improve upon the perfection that is the Emerald Kale Salad at Hillstone—nutrient-dense kale, crisp cabbage, bright fresh herbs, and of course that absolutely drinkable crunchy Sesame Miso Vinaigrette? You don't, really, other than actually figuring out how to make it at home and of course most importantly, replacing the worst ingredient, cilantro, with parsley. p.s. If you like cilantro, use it!
The salad can be made as an all green salad, or with the addition shredded cooked rotisserie chicken to make it a meal, which is how I've always known and had it. Recently, I've noticed that Hillstone changed the salad on their menu, serving it with yellowtail sashimi, so if the spirit moves you, add sashimi!
The Hillstone/Houston's Lore
Quick note: Houston's and Hillstone are restaurants in the same family. Both have "Emerald Kale Salad" on their menus. The salad greens base is the same. Hillstone serves the salad with cashews, sesame seeds, and Sesame Miso Vinaigrette (the copycat recipe on this post!). Houston's dresses the salad with a peanut vinaigrette and tops with crushed peanuts and parmesan cheese. I've duped the Houston's Kale Salad recipe, too!
Look. Hillstone is a chain restaurant and I'm not ashamed to say that I, like many others, LOVE it.
Ingredients You Need for Emerald Kale Salad
These are the ingredients you need for this Houston's Kale Salad dupe recipe:
- Kale, obviously!
- Cabbage
- Green onions
- Fresh mint and parsley (or sub cilantro if you don't mind the taste)
- Cashews
- Sesame seeds
Rotisserie chicken (or yellowtail sashimi, or canned tuna, or lightly crushed chickpeas...) is optional if you want to make it a meal!
And for the Sesame Miso Vinaigrette
- Rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons
- Apple cider vinegar
- Avocado oil, 2 tablespoons
- Sesame oil
- Miso
- Tamari/soy sauce
- Dijon mustard
- Garlic
- Maple syrup
- Water for texture
What is the Best Kind of Kale for Salad?
Lacinato kale, the dark green, flatter leaves, is the one I use in this recipe.
However, any type of kale—curly green, lacinato, red—works for this salad, and Hillstone uses the curly green kind. The nutritional profiles across the types are generally fairly similar. Some varieties are milder in flavor than others, but in this kale salad recipe, the differences are not noticeable because of the flavors of the other ingredients, namely the dressing.
The Kale Salad in these photos is made with the darker green lacinato/Tuscan/dinosaur kale, which has long skinny, "bumpy" leaves. The reason I generally prefer this kind of kale in cooking applications is that it's just easier to wash. Sometimes you gotta just go with practicality.
Baby kale has the mildest flavor and tbh, I could eat this version of kale in a salad.
Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources
Cabbage. This salad uses your standard everyday green cabbage, which is so underrated as a vegetable and a salad base imho. However, use whatever cabbage you have or prefer, like savoy cabbage, napa cabbage and even purple cabbage.
Cashews. Use roasted, salted cashews. Roasting amplifies the umami of the cashews, and also makes them crunchy. Any other roasted salted nut that you like—almonds, pistachios, walnuts, even peanuts—will work here.
Sesame Seeds. Sesame seeds add texture and when toasted, a layer of umami in addition to the toasted sesame oil. You can buy sesame seeds plain or toasted. Make sure the seeds are toasted. Otherwise, toss them in a hot, dry skillet over medium heat for about 90 seconds or until they are fragrant.
Dressing Ingredients Notes
Rice Vinegar. I use this brand organic brown rice vinegar. If you don't have rice vinegar, use any other light/mild vinegar like apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.
Apple Cider Vinegar. Any brand of apple cider vinegar works as long as it has the "mother," i.e. the little cloud floating inside. This generic brand of organic Apple Cider Vinegar is generally the most affordable where I shop. This well-known apple cider vinegar brand is available everywhere.
Avocado oil. I use this Avocado Oil as my every day neutral-flavored cooking oil. If you don't have avocado oil, use olive oil, though olive oil has quite a distinctive flavor.
Sesame Oil. Use toasted sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil is dark brown and is used as a finishing oil, not as a cooking oil. This is the Japanese brand that I like. You can usually find organic like this one in natural and higher end grocery stores.
Miso. Use any light-colored white or yellow miso that is labeled "organic" or "non-gmo." My favorite brands are all organic—this brand, this brand (pictured above), and this brand—and I have been able to find them in Whole Foods. If you are able to get to an Asian market or specialty store, check out the miso section.
Soy sauce/Tamari. Tamari is Japanese-style soy sauce that has little or no wheat. Therefore, tamari can be gluten-free, though not always. If you eat gluten-free, make sure to read labels. I use this organic gluten-free tamari. This brand is also great.
Maple Syrup. I use this organic maple syrup.
Dijon Mustard. This Dijon mustard brand has never failed me.
Green onions, cilantro, mint and any other fresh produce from either the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Wednesday, Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sunday, or Whole Foods Market.
How Much Kale is in 1 Bunch?
Because kale come in so many different sizes and shapes like so many um, other things, it's better to "measure" kale by weight, not by "bunch." However, grocery stores don't sell kale by weight, and people don't buy kale by weight either.
According to research, one average bunch of kale weighs about ½ pound, and yields about 6 cups of firmly packed chopped kale. So you need a total of 1 bunch of kale for this salad.
You will more than likely become hyper-fixated/obsessed/addicted to the Kale White Bean Salad though, so it's better to go over and have leftovers!
Instructions for How to Make the Hillstone Emerald Kale Salad Dupe
The hardest step in making this salad is washing the kale. That's it. Otherwise, like most salads, there isn't much to the actual recipe than placing all the ingredients in a large bowl, drizzling with the dressing, and tossing until everything is well coated.
HOWEVER. As easy as any salad recipe is, there are a few tips and tricks along the way that will make this, or any, salad, the best salad of your life.
Make Sesame Miso Vinaigrette First. Whisk or shake in a jar together the ingredients for the dressing.
If you haven't already, remove thick stems and chop 1 bunch of kale into small pieces. I usually like small, thin strips.
Place chopped kale in large bowl. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of dressing and "massage" the kale with your hands until the kale has broken down slightly and is glossy from the dressing, about 1 minute.
Add ¼ head cabbage finely chopped, 2 green onions thinly sliced, ¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves, 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast if using, and half the cashews.
Drizzle with dressing, and toss to combine.
Transfer salad to serving platter or divide salad among plates. Garnish each serving with remaining cashews and sesame seeds.
Pro Tips and Techniques for Hillstone Emerald Kale Salad
- Chop the kale as small as possible. One of the reasons you don't like eating kale salad is that it's hard to eat. We're going to fix that in two ways, the first of which is chopping the kale into the smallest pieces so you don't have to unhinge your jaw like a python to get a fistful of oversized airplane tarps into your mouth. Do I exaggerate to make a point? Yes, of course. Is it kind of true though? Also of course. Chop the kale small enough that you can eat it with a spoon. I'm serious.
- Dress and massage the kale first. The second way we're making kale salad easy to eat is by massaging the tiny chopped kale—you did chop the kale into the tiniest of tiny pieces right?— with a few tablespoons of the dressing first. I used to cringe at the idea of "massaging kale" because I don't know why, but I totally get that physically breaking down the fibers in the leaves makes kale much much easier to eat.
- Make double the amount of Emerald Kale Salad. If you make enough Emerald Kale Salad to eat now, it will be crisp and crunchy like a salad. If you make enough to save some for later, the salad will marinate in the dressing and become ever so lightly pickled and it will be another flavor dimension.
Health and Nutrition Benefits of Houston's Kale Salad
I am not a calorie counter. And you needn't be either. I am an anti-inflammation firefighter, so this recipe focuses on:
- anti-inflammatory ingredients
- nutrient-density
The brassicas, herbs, and dressing ingredients are high in phytonutrients that fight inflammation. The crunchy roasted salted peanuts are what makes the salad craveable so that you want to eat all those good things, and both the peanuts and peanut butter in the dressing are a source of fiber and plant-based protein.
Dietary Preferences/Restrictions
- Gluten-free. The Kale Salad recipe as written is gluten-free if you make sure to use gluten-free tamari (soy sauce).
- Vegan. To make the salad vegan, leave out the rotisserie chicken or replace with a can of chickpeas.
Hillstone Kale Salad Variations
I could eat this Kale Salad every day exactly as is, straight out of the enormous stainless steel mixing bowl I use to mix the salad. And with a spoon, of course! And thank God we can make it at home, because we aren't about wasting more than $20 every day in the restaurant.
The original reason we made this salad at home was to use extra rotisserie chicken we had from overzealously buying at everyone's favorite bulk store, but the salad works perfectly as a starter or side salad without the chicken. If you want to change up the protein, here are some tried and true faves:
- cooked or smoked wild salmon broken up right into the salad as you're mixing the other ingredients together
- canned tuna, added the same way as above
- eggs, medium-boiled and cut into quarters. Little bits of cooked yolk will mix with the dressing and make it ever so slightly creamy.
- chickpeas, for a plant-based protein boost
- pasta, add a chickpea or other protein-power pasta and turn the salad in to a pasta salad
You can also use the Sesame Miso Vinaigrette by itself in other ways:
- use it on the Cabbage Apple Salad and add a handful of chopped roasted salted peanuts
- Mandarin Chicken Salad
- Soba Salad
- stir the Sesame Miso Vinaigrette into hot, cooked grains or into pasta for a lighter in texture vs heavier cream- or mayo-based pasta salad
- toss the Sesame Miso Vinaigrette with literally any other greens.
Best Kale Salads
If you go to the trouble of washing and chopping greens for the Emerald Salad, you might as well go the distance, and prep enough to make salads for several days. You can use those greens in these chopped salads:
- Kale Salad with Roasted Peanut Dressing—Houston's dupe, which is similar to Hillstone, but different, iykyk
- Kale White Bean Salad, Erewhon Dupe
- Kale Tabbouleh Salad with Cherries
- Dill Pickle Chopped Salad with Kale and Cabbage
- Kale Caesar Salad with Avocado Caesar Dressing
How to Eat More Brassica/Cruciferous Vegetables, not Just Kale
- Green Shakshuka with Kale
- Eggs Florentine with Kale
- Kale Slaw with Apple Cider Dressing
- Kale Pesto
Hillstone Emerald Kale Salad with Sesame Miso Vinaigrette Recipe
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 bunch kale finely chopped
- ½ head cabbage finely chopped
- 2 green onions thinly sliced
- ¼ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, chopped (sub cilantro if you don't mind it, I hate cilantro)
- ½ cup cashews
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (optional)
- ½ cup Sesame Miso Vinaigrette (ingredients below!)
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Sesame Miso Vinaigrette (makes ¾ cup)
- ¼ cup avocado oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon miso
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1 teaspoon tamari/soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons filtered water plus more as needed for viscosity
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for dressing by whisking in small bowl or shaking together in a small mason jar with lid. Taste with a piece of kale or cabbage and adjust seasoning to taste.
- Put the kale in a large bowl. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of the dressing and a generous pinch of sea salt. Massage the chopped kale with your hands until the kale is completely coated and slightly wilted.
- Add shredded cabbage, green onions, mint, parsley, shredded chicken if using, and half the almonds. Drizzle with the remaining dressing and toss gently to combine.
- Divide salad among plates. Garnish each serving with remaining almonds.
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