Kale Caesar Salad

Caesar salads are a delicious and reliable salad, able to be ordered almost anywhere, and it will give you a dependable quality. However, who says you have to always have regular lettuce; why not some kale instead?

Make sure that you learn How to Make Buttery Garlicky Homemade Croutons for this recipe. Or why not make a more traditional Chicken Caesar Salad instead?

Kale Caesar Salad

A great Caesar salad is so much more than an easy lunch. It is nourishing, rich, fatty, and delicious and can be mixed with all kinds of additional ingredients to make a more varied meal.

One of the almost ever-present constants in Caesar salads, however, is the use of lettuce. Regular lettuce leaves or romaine hearts are pretty much all that you ever see.

But who says you have to always stick to the original? Why not experiment a little bit and make a Caesar salad using some kale leaves instead?                                                                                                         

Kale Caesar Salad Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing

 • Garlic

 • Mayonnaise, preferably full-fat

 • Anchovy paste

 • Parmesan cheese

 • Worcestershire sauce

 • Dijon mustard

 • Lemon juice

• Salt & pepper

Caesar Salad Ingredients

• Romaine hearts

• Garlic croutons

• Kale

• Parmesan flakes

• Fresh lemon juice

How To Make Kale Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad Dressing

• Combine all of the ingredients together into a container that you can use an immersion or hand blender to mix

• Process and blend all of the ingredients together, adding in as much garlic and lemon as you want

Assembling The Kale Caesar Salad

• Place the lettuce and the kale in a large bowl

• Toss the dressing until the lettuce and kale are totally coated

• Top with croutons and the Parmesan

• Right before serving, mix the toppings in the very top layer of lettuce and kale, just enough so that there is a layer of toppings in every serving and it is spread easily.   

Why Does This Recipe Use Mayonnaise?

Experienced salad makers might have noticed that this recipe uses full-fat mayonnaise rather than the more standard egg yolks and oil to make an emulsion for the sauce.

Purists will argue that this makes for an inauthentic Caesar salad dressing, but don’t listen to them. After all, mayonnaise is basically just an emulsion of egg yolks and oil anyway, so why go through all of the extra efforts and essentially make mayonnaise from scratch?

Just use regular, full-fat mayonnaise from the store instead. It will give the finished salad loads of intense creaminess and richness without you having to worry about potentially messing up making mayo at home.  

Does The Use Of Kale Make This Caesar Salad Taste Any Different?

Most Caesar salad recipes will call for the more regular romaine hearts and lettuce leaves rather than kale. In fact, some might even argue that the use of kale makes this a totally different salad altogether.

However, kale is just as perfectly valid in a salad as any other type of leafy green, and it might even be better!

Kale is packed with nutrients and has an intensely distinctive flavor that is unlike any other vegetable or green.

Expect your kale Caesar salad to have a predominately strong and earthy taste, a bit more hearty than the simple crunch of lettuce. It isn’t spicy or peppery like arugula is, but it does hit some of those same notes.

If you find that your kale Caesar salad is just a little bit too biting in its earthiness, consider upping the acidity in this recipe to help compensate for it.

You could even swap out the lemon juice for lime juice instead, which could help to reduce any residual bitterness. Plus, it is actually the more historical option, as the original Caesar salad actually called for lime instead of lemon!

Looking for more delicious Salad recipes? Try these out:

•7 Layer Salad

• Cucumber Tomato Salad

• Turkey Salad

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

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