Warm Balsamic Kale Salad Recipe - Pinch of Yum
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Warm Balsamic Kale Salad

20 reviews / 4.9 average

I’m gettin all healthy on ya today.

I’ve been at the grocery store A LOT lately. Grocery shopping has always been a weekly highlight for me, because obviously I live on the edge. Some people spend Saturday at the mall buying shoes; I spend Saturday at the grocery store buying new kinds of flour and chocolate. I mean, um, vitamins.

In one of my recent grocery trips, I discovered those bags of prewashed, precut kale in the produce section. I know, I’m a little behind the times and mayyyybe a little lazy in that I don’t like to spend one minute washing and cutting those huge kale leaves. But after living abroad for a year with a reduced number of fresh greens available and a thorough cleaning process required for all vegetables, my eyes popped out of my head and my jaw hit the floor when I saw this convenience superfood. They must know me.

Grocery shopping, though.

Something scary is happening to me, and it’s called I never want to go back to the grocery store ever again. Making the drive, zigzagging across the store to get what I need, waiting in line, bagging my stuff, awkwardly speed walking it out to my car because I’m apparently always in a hurry, and repeat that once, sometimes twice, daily for almost three weeks? It makes a person fall out of love quickly.

Good news: there’s only FIVE DAYS left until I am done with my eCookbook and can stop going to the grocery store every day. Let’s celebrate with a sale!

Balsamic kale salad on a white plate.

So confession: I actually really like eating this balsamic KALE salad, and so does Bjork (!). It makes me feel good and happy and lucky to have the opportunity to eat such healthy food. <– 100% serious. After living in a developing country for a year, I am much more aware that it’s a privilege to have access to nutritious food like this on a regular basis.

And if the choice involves warm olive oil and balsamic sauteed kale, tossed with garlic-butter mushrooms and tender sweet bell peppers and Asiago cheese, with a dusting of sea salt and a sprinkle of black pepper? I say thank you, YES.

This salad is like one million flavors in one, and here’s the funny thing: every time I make it, I add something new. It’s an everything but the kitchen sink kinda salad: fresh basil, or dried cherries, or grilled salmon, or feta, or brown rice, or rosemary garlic sauce leftover from one of my eCookbook recipes. It all just works.

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Kale Salad

Warm Balsamic Kale Salad


Description

This warm balsamic kale salad has tons of flavor and includes sauteed mushrooms and peppers, bell peppers, and Asiago cheese.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup diced onion
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 yellow pepper, diced
  • 8 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
  • 4 cups kale
  • 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup Asiago cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt one tablespoon of butter. Add the onions and peppers; saute for several minutes until softened. Add the mushrooms and one tablespoon butter; saute for several minutes until browned.
  2. Add the kale, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. Saute until the kale is deep green but not yet wilted. Remove from heat and serve topped with Asiago or Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

You can also add a protein for a more filling “meal” salad, like grilled salmon, chicken, white beans, etc. I also liked having this over a brown rice/ancient grain blend.

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Category: Dinner
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: warm kale salad, balsamic kale salad, kale salad

 

Eat kale and be happy, and someone please sign me up for Coborns Delivers.

(…Actually, for real, does anyone use a grocery delivery service?)

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74 Comments

  1. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Those kale bags come in very handy!! And I’ve been falling out of love with grocery shopping lately too…probably for the same reason 🙂

    This salad looks amazing! I need a plate of health like that these days.

  2. Pinch of Yum Logo

    for real, when i eat kale, i feel proud of myself. i do. and it is ALWAYS tastier than i think it will be. i think i’ll wash my own leaves though… i think…

  3. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I wiiiiish there was a grocery delivery service near me. I’d pay so much money to not have to deal with the sticky, crying children in the grocery store confusing me for their mom! This salad looks amazing, I love the addition of mushrooms

  4. Pinch of Yum Logo

    One of my most dreaded task is washing and cutting kale. I have no idea why, but I really hate it!! I so wish my grocery store had the pre-cut stuff. Oh man, oh man that would be awesome!
    Now, this salad is also awesome! I love that it is warm and full of color! Those are personally my favorite kind of salads!

  5. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I love those packages of pre-washed and cut kale. Except, it’s only available at the grocery store on the OTHER side of town, but definitely worth it 🙂

  6. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I love kale! I haven’t done grocery delivery service, but my sister in Seattle does Amazon Fresh (which is only available in Seattle, sadly). She loves it and and was talking about it non-stop. After visiting her and seeing how awesome it is, I’m totally considering trying one here, though!! Right now I do most of my grocery shopping at complete opposite places – the farmers market and Costco. Ha!!

      1. Pinch of Yum Logo

        Amazon Fresh just recently launched in Los Angeles – maybe other cities will follow soon

  7. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I love Kale 🙂 I want also to let you know that Pinch of Yum is now by far my fav food blog (I’m a new reader!). You guys rock!

    cheers from waaay up north 😉

  8. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I use a grocery delivery service! It’s kind of a godsend in New York, when I have a huge shopping expedition I need to do. I get all the heavy stuff delivered- cans of food, milk, etc- and then I buy the produce myself in the store or farmer’s market because I’m picky like that.
    I love the warm olive oil on this salad! Kale salads make me happy these days, too.

  9. Pinch of Yum Logo

    That just sounds tasty…then you see the pics and bam! I want to make it!

    On the not of grocery shopping my wife and I have noticed that our grocery shopping experiences are all reflective on where we go. If we go to the hi end markets, we pay more, but have a better “experience”. Ie there is lots to look at, samples galore, people with similar interests, and big pickles in a big jar. If we go to like a Fred Meyers, we want to get in, get out, and tend to hate and fight the crowds. We have started to spend more just so we can enjoy the grocery shopping experience!

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      That’s a really good point, Ed. The closes thing to me is just Cub Foods, but we do have a few high end grocery stores around that might just be worth the drive… eventually. 🙂

  10. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I love it, especially the portobello and parm! I love grocery shopping too, except I really need to get better at meal planning and do less spontaneous buying of food just because it looks pretty ;}

  11. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Beautiful salad! Sounds delicious and wonderful presentation. Great job!

    Happy Blogging!

  12. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I love kale salads, and thank goodness for the pre-cut, pre-washed stuff. I don’t want to trim that stuff down and chop it all the time. This sounds heavenly with all of these great veggies and my favorite — balsamic!

  13. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I wouldn’t mind buying pre-washed kale if it still meant that one huge bag of kale still only cost me 98 cents. Fat chance for that, though, right?! Recipes like this one in which you can add leftovers and make it different each time are so nice and easy!

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Definitely true, although I don’t remember it being much more expensive. But you know, I’m kind of in a grocery store blur these days… so who knows. 🙂

  14. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This looks so good! And yes! I use grocery delivery. I get my product delivered through doortodoororganics.com … and other groceries I get through greenpolkadotbox.com … green polka dot box is awesome, they work like a natural foods/online version of Costco–so you pay a $50 membership fee and then you get wholesale prices for all of their stuff!

  15. Pinch of Yum Logo

    So the lady I babysit for gets her groceries from Safeway delivered. She does all of her ordering online, and it’s delivered the same day every week. She SWEARS by it. But I don’t know, as a huge foodie, I personally LOVE the grocery store and would feel weird not making my weekly (and lets be real, more like daily) trips. But I can see how if you have a ton going out it can be pretty convenient.

    Ps. This salad looks amazeballs and I can’t wait to try it!

  16. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Did I miss it?
    I cant find the link to sign up for the discount code to order your cookbook.

    Thank You,
    Debra

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Hi Debra, looks like there’s a hiccup with the sign up form! Working on getting it fixed now. Thanks for letting me know!

  17. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Yum! Looks super tasty!

    Isn’t it sad that healthy, nutritious food is a privilege? I’m an urban planner by education and a foodie by love and I find it so heart-breaking that the disenfranchised don’t have access to healthy food and, at least as far as the US goes, a lot of this has to do with policy and politics. So frustrating!

  18. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This salad looks really delicious!

    I am usually not a fan of grocery shopping. Whenever I mention this, people always tell me the secret is to go really early, like 8 a.m. I try and when I do, it works out great and I tell myself I will always do this.