Kale Salad with Berries, the Best of California

Make a kale salad that everyone—and we mean everyone—will crave by making it impossibly easy to eat (and make!) and craveably delicious with baskets of bright, fresh California-grown berries. This Kale Salad with Berries and a simple lemon and olive dressing is that salad. Shall we?

Explore More

• What Ingredients You Need for Kale Salad with Berries
• Instructions for How to Make Kale Salad with Berries
• Pro Tips and Techniques for Kale Salad with Berries
• What is the Best Kind of Kale for Salad?
• Tools and Equipment
• Variations and Modifications
• FAQ
• Kale Salad with Berries Recipe

What Ingredients You Need for Kale Salad with Berries

Salad ingredients:

• Kale, 1 bunch washed (~6 cups)
• Strawberries, 1 cup hulled and sliced into quarters
• Raspberries, 1 cup
• Blackberries, 1 cup, extra large berries sliced in half lengthwise
• Blueberries, 1 cup
• Cucumbers, 4 small Persian
• Feta cheese, 4 ounces crumbled or diced
• Pistachios, 1 cup shelled

Dressing ingredients:

• Lemon, 1 large
• Olive oil, ¼ cup, from
• Sea salt and pepper

Instructions for How to Make Kale Salad with Berries

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.

Pro Tips and Techniques for Kale Salad with Berries

1. Chop the kale as small as possible. One of the reasons you might not enjoy 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.
2. 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.
3. Toss the salad with your hands. Berries are fragile, especially raspberries, so to keep them from breaking apart too much, use your hands to toss the salad ingredients,
4. Prep double the amount. If you make enough Kale Salad with Berries to eat now, it will be crisp and crunchy like a salad. If you make enough to save some for later, the kale will marinate in the dressing and become ever so lightly pickled and it will be another flavor dimension. Just keep the berries separate until right before serving.

What is the Best Kind of Kale for Salad?

Green, curly kale is the one I use in this recipe.

However, any type of kale—curly green, lacinato, red—works for the salad, and 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 "curly" kale, which is a lighter, brighter green with the ruffled edges, makes the salad a brighter, slightly more vibrant green.

Baby kale, which is actually its own variety of kale and not a "baby," has the mildest flavor and tender texture.

California is Always in Season

Aside from the very obvious fact that I live here in the Golden State, I love California for its produce, both the variety across the seasons and the sheer volume. Because of the state's long, north-south geographical shape and varied topography, California has multitudes of growing climates that support not only different crops suited to different regions, but the same crop in different regions in different seasons.

For example, lettuces and leafy greens grow in northern regions of California like San Luis Obispo County in the warmth of spring/summer, and continue to grow through the winter in the Imperial Valley in southern California. That means lettuces and leafy greens, along with all the brassicas, carrots, most citrus, and certain other crops are in season and available to the rest of the country year-round.

Speaking of San Luis Obispo...My (now annual) agri-tour with my pals at California Grown was in San Luis Obispo this past Spring. We met farmers and learned about crops that grow in that region like berries, brassicas, olives for olive oil, and of course, wine.

The CityFarmSLO visit and olive oil tasting at California olive oil producer Pasolivo inspired this recipe for Kale Salad with Berries.

For a visual guide to the seasonality of key crops in California check out California Grown's Eat the Seasons chart. You can download and print it. And check out this article for more information and nerdy statistics on California-grown produce.

Best California Agritours

As a member of the content creator team for California Grown, I' ha've gone on several trips to visit agriculture and wine regions throughout the state. Peep below to learn more:

• Central Valley, CA agritour with sweet potatoes, pomegranate, persimmons, dairy farms and cheese, olive oil, and Imperial Valley salad greens, with a recipe for Autumn Persimmon 'Caprese'
• Monterey, CA Agritour with Ocean Mist artichokes, Lakeside Organics greens, and Far West Fungi Mushrooms, with a recipe for How to Cook Lion's Mane Mushrooms
• San Joaquin Valley, CA agritour with dates, figs, prunes, raisins, pumpkins, and kiwi—yes kiwi! with a recipe for Sicilian-style Cauliflower Steaks with Raisins and Pistachios
• Santa Barbara, CA, a wine tasting guide and a recipe for Salade Niçoise
• Santa Cruz, CA with a recipe for California Endless Summer Rolls with Avocado and Cucumber
• Temecula, CA agritour with avocados, blueberries, and of course, wine

Tools and Equipment

You don't technically need any special equipment to make this Kale Salad with Berries. You can simply use a large knife and cutting board to chop all the kale, and the berries don't need anything but a good wash. However, that doesn't mean there are a couple of gadgets and tools that might make this salad even easier to throw together than it already is.

• Salad spinner is absolutely necessary for a house that eats a lot of salads because wet, soggy greens are the enemy of good salads. And especially in the case of kale, the curly leaves practically suction the water; they need to be spun out
• Mini ceramic colanders to wash berries. The fewer holes means the berries "bathe" a little before the water drains out
• Chef's knife. This one is my daily workhorse knife and what you absolutely need to make easy work of tiny bits
• Extra large cutting board - large and sturdy so you have enough surface area for all the fluffy greens, and doesn't move around on the countertop
• Large glass mixing bowls that are great doubles for salad serving bowls

For the dressing, these tools are also helpful

• Citrus squeezer—you can squeeze citrus by hand, but my cheap frugal value-driven heart likes to squeeze out EVERY last nano-drop of juice
• 2-ounce (4 tablespoons) liquid measuring cup
• Mini stainless steel whisk
• Wide-mouth mason jars and air-tight screw-on lids to shake the dressing and store.

Variations and Modifications

• Toss in avocado for a layer of rich and luxurious plant-based fats
• Add cooked quinoa to give the salad an additional plant-based protein boost
• Serve alongside a generous filet of omega-3-rich salmon to make this an extra antioxidant-rich meal
• Top with 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast to make it a hearty main dish salad

Kale Salad with Berries Health and Diet Considerations

This recipe for Kale Salad with Berries is:

• vegetarian
• vegan adaptable with substitution with any plant-based feta
• gluten-free
• dairy-free, adaptable with substitution with dairy-free feta
• refined sugar-free
• anti-inflammatory
• anti-oxidant rich

FAQ

Best Wine Pairing with Kale Salad with Berries

As is the case with almost all food, wines with sharp acidity and lower alcohol levels are best with this with Kale Salad with Berries. As far as specific flavors, it's less about an exact flavor pairing because there are so many layers in the dish, and more about a vibe pairing. And since "what grows together, goes together," here are some favorite California wine picks:

Dry Rosé Wines. The vibe? Sitting outside on a patio overlooking the ocean, late afternoon, late spring... doesn't that feel like a bottle of rosé?

• Austin Hope 'Artist Series' Rosé of Pinot Noir. Our San Luis Obispo County agritour included a rosé flight in Austin Hope's new tasting room and creative gallery, Hope on Park, in downtown Paso Robles, and all of the wines were great and different from one another, but the one made from Pinot Noir will work especially well with the Kale Salad. The other rosé wines we tasted were Rosé of Grenche and deeper, fuller Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon which would be great when grilling and my personal fave in the flight.

Acidic, Dry White Wines. Pairing wine with any fresh vegetable-forward dish usually depends first and foremost on the sauce or dressing. Vinaigrettes, like this one, call for a tart wine to stand up to the acid of the dressing. Like rosé, Sauvignon Blanc fit the bill here, especially bottles that have undertones of citrus to match the lemon in the vinaigrette.

Sparkling Wine. As I always say, when in doubt, get the bubbles out. And since we're in California:

• Austin Hope 'Treana' Blanc de Blancs, Paso Robles, CA, which we tasted in the new Austin Hope tasting room and creative gallery space called Hope on Park in downtown Paso Robles
• Domaine Chandon 'Etoile' Brut, Sonoma, CA
• Goat Bubbles from Flying Goat Cellars in Lompoc, Santa Barbara County (not certified sustainable, but recommended by the always highly reliable KC of G-FreeFoodie)

Explore the Best of California Wines

Best Salads with Fruit

There is nothing I like better than a salad with fruit for added antioxidants, so here are a few to consider:

• Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Citrus Avocado Salad
• Peach Salad with Hot Honey Balsamic
• Blueberry Avocado Salad
• Fresh Fig Arugula Salad
• Mandarin Chicken Salad, super healthy "Chinese" Chicken Style

Friends from California Grown share their best recipes and San Luis Obispo recommendations, too. Check them out below:

• ... from California Grown
• Gluten-free Buttermilk Cake with Roasted Strawberries by Alison of A Girl Defloured
• ... by Becky of Baking the Goods
• ... by Irvin of Eat the Love
• ... by Jaine of Dinner at Jaine's
• ... by Aida of Salt & Wind
• ... by Tahiri of Tahiri Flowers
• ... by Meg of This Mess is Ours

^{This post sponsored by California Grown. All opinions are our own. Thank you for supporting our partners who keep The Delicious Life well fed!}