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I’ve made this salad several times and it’s become a household favorite…even the teenager loves it! Thanks!
Michelle
I might have just crossed the line: Bread, Parmesan, and Salad all typed together in the same recipe title.
So, uhmmm, yes – this IS the best day of 2015 so far, thanks for asking.
It’s almost hard for me to describe how much I love this salad AND I KNOW I say that almost every time, but this time (just, come on, stick with me) it’s really the truth. It’s like everything wonderful that I love all in a bowl waiting to add extra happy to my meal with its tangy, crunchy, delicious green presence, and yet the only words the come to mind (mind-blowing! life-changing! the best kale salad ever!) can’t even really touch it.
We’re talking about bits of buttery toasted bread, a handful of finely shredded Parmesan cheese, and shredded baby pieces of kale that are small enough to be super delicious all tossed together in a bowl with a homemade shallot, olive oil, and lemon dressing.
The pure definition of simple and MOST YUMMY SALAD. These foods just bring out my best creative writing.
Pinkie promise, I would eat this kale salad every day for the rest of the month and never get tired of it. It goes with everything (even skillet chicken with bacon and white wine sauce, maybe?) and it always always ALWAYS tastes good to me.
But so let’s talk about what it is, in case you were feeling confused about the title or the fact that this is indeed a kale salad in spite of it being mostly a bread and cheese bowl. I’m a born rule-breaker.
I’ll start with the part where we soak the bread cubes in a little bit (…) of butter and then toast them in the oven to make some kind of crazy simple and delicious homemade crouton-esque crunchies.
Always a good place to start, friends. Alwaysssss.
And then, that dressing. HELLO THAT DRESSING.
Why is it so good?
Something about the olive oil and lemon juice and delicately minced shallots? I don’t even pretend to know these things, but it’s seriously the simplest thing you’ve ever shaken up together in a jar and it will leave your mouth a tiny bit puckery and so very happy for a lifetime.
Thank you, toasted bread, Parmesan, and kale with a homemade shallot dressing, for making my Minnesota-in-February life a totally crunchy, colorful, bearable thing right now.
KALE YEAH!
Check Out Our Video For How To Make Parmesan Kale Salad:
Toasted Bread and Parmesan Kale Salad
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 (we served it as a side with 7 people and still had a little left over) 1x
Description
This is THE BEST Kale Salad! Lots of shredded kale, Parmesan cheese, homemade breadcrumbs, and a lemon olive oil dressing. So simple, SO GOOD.
Ingredients
For the Dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- juice of one lemon
- juice of one orange
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For the Salad
- 6–8 slices French bread or baguette
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 5–6 cups fresh kale, very finely chopped
Instructions
- Dressing: Place all the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake to mix. Taste and adjust as desired.
- Breadcrumbs: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the bread on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, flipping the pieces over halfway through baking. When the bread is very dry and crusty, remove from oven and allow to cool. Break the bread into pieces and place in a food processor. Pulse until crumbs form. Toss the breadcrumbs with the melted butter and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Spread on the baking sheet and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
- Salad: Toss the kale, breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and dressing together. Serve immediately.
Notes
If you’re storing leftover salad that’s already been tossed with the dressing, you’ll probably find that the bread soaks up the dressing so you might need an extra squeeze of lemon juice or olive oil to re-moisten the salad.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Lunch
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: toasted bread and kale salad, kale salad, parmesan kale salad
Gave this recipe a try and it’s amazing! I used sourdough bread instead and tasted soooo good!
Can’t wait to make this delicious sounding recipe.
This is my favorite salad of all time! Thank you!
I’ve made this dozens of times and it’s always perfect. Making it tonight for the family Christmas potluck!
This is our go to kale salad. Love it so much!!
I usually add 1-2 tsp of sugar to the dressing though
Thanks for sharing, Dana! 😊
Can you recommend a sub for the white wine vinegar? Would another finger work in its place?
You could try rice vinegar instead.
Love this salad! Not sure if I read it in the comments but I add a good amount of garlic to the bread crumbs. AND I love leftovers just the way they are. The breadcrumbs get all yummy chewy with the dressing!
Glad you enjoyed the salad, Lisa!
I’ve made this salad several times and it’s become a household favorite…even the teenager loves it! Thanks!
Awesome to hear, Michelle!
Made this to go with quiche for a Sunday brunch. It was delicious! Next time I will toss the dressing with the kale and let it sit for a little while, then toss the bread crumbs in just before serving. I ate the leftover salad the next day and the kale and dressing had melded perfectly. Obviously the breadcrumbs were mushy by that time, but it was still delicious. I will use the dressing for other things too.YUM!
Glad you enjoyed it, Shannon!
I’m making this for our Christmas dinner! Can’t wait to devour it. I looooove your salad recipes.
Hi! I’ve made this salad and absolutely love it! My question is, is it possible to prep and make this the next day by making the buttered breadcrumbs and the dressing the night before? Or is it best when the breadcrumbs are fresh out of the oven?
Also, is it OK to use a stale baguette rather than fresh?
I think it’s totally fine to make them the day before! And stale bread might be even better. 🙂
This was absolutely delicious and so easy to make! The croutons sounds like a lot of work but it’s very tasty and not that time consuming to do. I did increase the heat of the oven however, it was not browning at 300 degrees. I will make this again many many times.
I wonder how you get the kale chopped so fine?
Do you use a food processor? Thank you.
A food processor works well for this!
A great version of this is too use Panko breadcrumbs instead of bread, and add spicy mustard to the dressing (: it makes a regular appearance at our house
Great suggestions, Nicole!
I made this as a side for dinner tonight – delicious!
Awesome, Brittany!
This salad was so good! I had four kids begging for seconds. They said, “We could eat this every day!”
Awesome! Thanks for the comment, Abby!
So excited for your cookbook – photo spread looks fantastic!
I made this for dinner last night and it was great! Only complaint was that it was slightly too lemony for some, but I will use less in the dressing next time. The breadcrumbs were delicious.
That’s awesome! Glad you can adjust it to your taste preferences. Thanks, Jess!
Lindsay – this salad is amazing. I’ve made it 3 nights in a row. Best kale salad ever. Seriously.
We love hearing that! Thanks for the comment, Ayesha.
I love the jar method for making salad dressing, don’t you? I think it’s sad that people buy dressings, when you can make a much healthier version at home for mere pennies.
Just barely made this for dinner. My husband and I really enjoyed it!! I’ve learned that I cannot eat Kale in smoothies because it still has a “lettuce” taste to it that I don’t like, no matter how sweet I make my smoothie to try to mask the kale flavor! But… I’ve tried a few Kale salads recently and I’ve really been enjoying them! I’ve been venturing trying different Kale salad recipes lately and this was a great one! I loved the dressing with the salad, it was a nice flavor! I actually served this tonight with the Super Simple Jerk Chicken recipe found on this site (I kind of chose that chicken recipe randomly), and they were both enjoyable recipes. Don’t know how well those different flavored dishes went together… but individually they were both great recipes! 🙂 I love your blog, Lindsay!
Thanks for the comment – I’m so glad to hear that you liked it Sharice! 🙂
This was a hit for my lunch yesterday! It paired perfectly with the roasted chicken the hostess prepared. Thanks Lindsay.
I love hearing that! Thanks for the comment Leigh!
Hi,
This looks so yummy!! I just wanted to ask where/how you got your nutritional information? I am doing a little calorie watching and myfittnesspall (app) had this coming in at 268 calories for 8 servings. I would love for it to be less! So I thought I would see where you got your numbers from.
Thanks!
I use a nutrition label tool available on our membership site Food Blogger Pro – https://nutrifox.com/ – We use the same database as companies like Whole Foods.
Brilliant recipe! Had a question – how do your long/vertical collage pins on pinterest display that the pin is from pinchofyum.com if the actual pin is not found in this recipe?
Thank you!
Hi Leah! We have them embedded within the post but use a snippet of code so they don’t show up until someone clicks Pin It. 🙂
Tried it and it was really delicious, best kale salad yet. I used a food processor to chop the kale in batches, very fast. Didn’t have bread so used Panko crumbs instead which worked very well. Large crumbs would be better and crunchier longer I’m sure. Best when eaten immediately, as crumbs go soft, but still tasty leftovers. Recommend adding dressing to kale only ahead of time which helps to soften kale, then adding crumbs just before serving. I ate most of this myself for lunch, and had to really use control to save some for hubbie’s dinner.
Great idea with the food processor!