It is finally here. It’s salad season! I love this time of year because my garden is bursting with fresh lettuce, kale, and arugula. I will eat salad after salad until I grow tired, but that is far from the goal. The goal is finding ways to keep salad interesting, so I share with you this apple cheddar kale salad.
Apple and cheddar are a classic combination of sweet and salty. Pair that with an apple cider vinaigrette to keep things savory and some sunflower seeds for crunch, and you have a winner salad.
Traditionally I would add some protein to a salad to help make it satisfying. I didn’t with this salad for two reasons, first, the cheddar has a good amount of protein so the salad is not void of it.
Second, my usual protein add-in chickpeas did not completment the dish. They were not bad, but it was better without.
Variations to the Apple Cheddar Kale Salad recipe:
- Try fresh lemon juice in place of apple cider vinegar.
- Try different combos of apple varieties and cheeses. I used honeycrisp and sharp cheddar. Try granny smith and asiago, Fuji and feta, or even pear and blue cheese.
- Other additions: Add croutons or mix in dried fruits for more texture contrast, such as dried cranberries or cherries.
- 6 cups torn curly kale
- 1 sweet apple, core removed, thinly sliced
- 2 oz sharp cheddar, ½ inch cubes
- 2 TBS sunflower seeds
- 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
- 2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp each: black pepper and sea salt
- Message the kale until it looks slighly limp.
- Layer in a bowl the kale, apple, cheddar, and sunflower seeds.
- In a measuring cup, mix together the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, dijon, salt and pepper.
- Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.
