Kale Salad with Orange
If you love a good kale salad with orange then you will adore this recipe. This bright and sunny salad includes chopped raw kale, crunchy bread crumbs, avocado and feta. In addition to orange segments, I also used fresh grapefruit and lemon vinaigrette for three citrus fruits all in one delicious kale salad recipe!
Table of contents
- Recipe Highlights for Kale Salad with Orange
- Ingredient Notes For Kale Salad with Citrus
- How To Make Kale Orange Salad with Feta and Breadcrumbs
- Serving Suggestions For Orange Kale Salad
- Variations To Try
- Make Ahead Instructions For Kale Salad with Orange
- How To Supreme and Orange or Segment Citrus Fruit
- More Winter Salads and Kale Recipes To Try
Recipe Highlights for Kale Salad with Orange
- Classic Flavors: You can’t go wrong with a classic combination of kale and orange in a salad recipe. We added in a few usual suspects, including feta cheese and avocado.
- Crunchy Sourdough Bread Crumbs: We amped up the crunch factor with delicious homemade skillet breadcrumbs, which are sortof a fun variation of homemade croutons. They cling to every nook and cranny of the kale and soak up any extra lemony dressing and all the juices from the orange and grapefruit.
- Fast and Easy: Ready in less than 30 minutes and we have a few make-ahead tips to make it even easier!
- Vegetarian: Serve it with your favorite meatless burger for a Meatless Monday or flexitarian menu.
- Versatile: Can be adapted to a variety of innovations and goes with fish, chicken and other family-friendly main course recipes.
More Kale Salad Recipes
Do you love kale salad? We do too. So make sure to check out more of our healthy seasonal recipes!
Ingredient Notes For Kale Salad with Citrus
- Kale leaves: You’ll need about a half of a large bunch of kale for this recipe. Regular curly kale with the stems removed or Lacinato kale work equally well. Chop it up nicely.
- Citrus: This kale salad is all about the citrus! You can either use two large oranges or one orange and one grapefruit like I did today. You’ll also need a lemon for the dressing. Feel free to use clementines tangerine or another variety of citrus fruit in this salad. It works with them all!
- Feta: Feta and orange compliment each other in kale salad. If you like goat cheese better than feta swap that in.
- Avocado: Another seasonal favorite is avocado. It adds creaminess to the rustic breadcrumbs and raw kale.
- Skillet Breadcrumbs: For the rustic sourdough breadcrumbs you’ll need a couple slices of day old or stale sourdough bread. You’ll also need a clove of garlic and olive oil to make them.
For The Kale Salad Dressing:
- You’ll need extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, shallot, salt and pepper for the dressing.
- We also added in lemon and orange zest for more citrus flavor!
- We found the lemon to be too bracing so I added in a little honey to help mellow it out. It doesn’t taste sweet, but it helps to make the dressing less sour.
- If you like a little dijon mustard in your salad dressing, add in one or two teaspoons.
How To Make Kale Orange Salad with Feta and Breadcrumbs
Step 1: Make Breadcrumbs
Tear bread into a few pices and place in a food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment. Pulse several times to chop into large chunky breadcrumbs.
Step 2: Toast Breadcrumbs in Skillet
Heat 3 tablespoons oil and smashed garlic in a medium skillet over medium heat until shimmering hot but not smoking. Add bread, and cook, stirring often. Reduce heat if necessary if it starts to smoke, and continue cooking until the breadcrumbs are browned and the garlic is toasted, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool.
Step 3: Make Kale Salad Dressing
Whisk the rest of the olive oil, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, honey, shallot, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
Step 4: Assemble Salad and Toss with Dressing
Combine kale, orange segments, grapefruit, avocado and feta in a salad bowl. Pour dressing over the salad and gently toss to coat.
Step 5: Add Breadcrumbs and Serve
Add the breadcrumbs and toss again. Serve immediately with avocado.
Serving Suggestions For Orange Kale Salad
- Chicken: This salad is bold and goes great with roasted meats like Roast Chicken, or my family’s favorite Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs. Our Dutch Oven Roast Chicken is another Sunday Supper to pair this with.
- Pork: We love the savory and sweet combination of pork and citrus. Try this salad with Grilled Pork Tenderloin, my skillet Apple and Pork Tenderloin dinner or Roast Pork Loin.
- Fish: Top with a crispy salmon filet or serve along side our new Baked Cod with Panko or with or Baked Salmon in Foil.
- Comfort Food Classics: Our Turkey Sloppy Joes or Turkey Lasagna are yummy with a salad on the side.
- Vegetarian: Top with oven-roasted portobello mushrooms or a veggie patty. Try this with our Mushroom Pizza or Brown Rice Risotto with Pumpkin or this Mediterranean Lavash Wrap with roasted veggies inside.
Variations To Try
- Experiment with Other Citrus: We used one grapefruit and one orange, but you could use either or. Also try with blood orange or cara cara oranges. Use clementines, tangerines or tangelos.
- Add Nuts: We like pepitas or sunflower seeds or toasted nuts in a kale salad. Try spiced pecans or toasted sliced almonds.
- Dressing: If you want to experiment with the dressing there are so many ways you could go. Our most popular dressings are this Lemon Vinaigrette Recipe and this Apple Cider Vinegar Salad Dressing. You can check out more salad dressing ideas here.
- Add Beets: We almost added beets to this recipe, but held back so we could let this be all about the citrus, but beets would be amazing in this too! If you have leftover roast beets add them on. And while we’re at it add on a little pickled red onion.
Make Ahead Instructions For Kale Salad with Orange
Wash and cut kale, and supreme the oranges up to 3 days in advance. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar. Keep all the ingredients refrigerated. Add avocado, cherry tomatoes and dressing before serving.
How To Supreme and Orange or Segment Citrus Fruit
Supreming citrus fruit means removing all the white pith. You can also watch my video of how to supreme an orange if you want more detail! Here is the quick version of how to do it:
- Before you begin, remove the zest of the orange.
- Carefully slice off the citrus peel, then hold the citrus fruit in your hand or rest it against the cutting board.
- Carefully slice between each thin layer of skin/pith to remove the citrus fruit slices.
More Winter Salads and Kale Recipes To Try
- Don’t miss our Chopped Salad with Chicken, Blackened Salmon Salad or this Chopped Winter Salad if you are looking for a hearty winter weather salad recipe.
- Try this Kale Mac and Cheese or Kale Bread with Feta if you are looking for an offbeat way of using kale
- We love Sauteed Kale with a splash of vinegar, and this sweet and tangy Kale with Balsamic and Cranberries is another variation.
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Kale Salad with Orange
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups 1x
Description
If you love a good kale salad with orange then you will adore this version made with chopped raw kale, crunchy bread crumbs, avocado and feta. In addition to orange segments, I also used fresh grapefruit and lemon vinaigrette for three citrus fruits all in one!
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and skin removed
- 4 ounces day old sourdough bread
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 1/2 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 4 cups chopped kale leaves (no ribs)
- 1 large seedless orange, segmented or supreme-cut
- 1 ruby red grapefruit, segmented or supreme-cut
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese, 2 ounces
- 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
Instructions
- Tear bread into a few pices and place in a food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment. Pulse several times to chop into large chunky breadcrumbs.
- Heat 3 tablespoons oil and smashed garlic in a medium skillet over medium heat until shimmering hot but not smoking. Add bread, and cook, stirring often. Reduce heat if necessary if it starts to smoke, and continue cooking until the breadcrumbs are browned and the garlic is toasted, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate to cool and sprinkle with a little salt to taste.
- Whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, honey, shallot, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
- Combine kale, orange, grapefruit, avocado and feta in a salad bowl. Pour dressing over the salad and gently toss to coat.
- Add the breadcrumbs and toss again. Serve immediately with avocado.
Notes
Cooking Tip
Supreming citrus fruit basically means removing all the white pith. Carefully slice off the citrus peel, then hold the citrus fruit in your hand. Carefully slice between each thin layer of skin/pith to remove the citrus fruit slices. There are also plenty of YouTubes you can watch if you want more detail!
Make Ahead
Wash and cut kale, and supreme the oranges up to 3 days in advance. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar. Keep all the ingredients refrigerated. The breadcrumbs can be made a day ahead and kept at room temperature in a bag or resealable container. Toast them lightly in the toaster oven before adding to the salad. Follow directions for assembling and tossing the salad.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/2 cup
- Calories: 286
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 427 mg
- Fat: 19 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 6 g
Great salad. Your recipe never mentions to add olive oil to the citrus dressing. You need to add it I think.
I just try to stay balanced in my choices
My goal for eating more healthy in 2015 is to reduce the sugar I consume.
This looks so amazing. I am a big lover of kale in my green juices and smoothies as well as kale chips! We are having this tonight, can’t wait!
I am obsessed about kale right now myself. I love the chips as well.
I am super obsessed with kale right now! I can’t go a day without it! This looks like a tasty lunch with an addition of protein! Thanks for sharing!
I agree. That is totally my kind of lunch.
I have a crazy schedule with 2 jobs so I want to try and do better with menu planning for healthier meals.
That’s a lot of work, so I totally commend you on that goal Lynn.
This is the perfect salad to make after the indulgent Christmas I just had. thanks for the recipe!
Totally with you Thalia. I am needing much kale in my life for days and days.
Looking forward to bringing even more health and happiness to my family in the coming year.
I love that one Pamela. I am so in agreement!
I want to tame my sweet tooth and cut back on sugar so I am starting now!
The holiday sweets can be such a slippery slope can’t they? I think that’s a solid plan Paige.
Delightful! Something I exactly want after all the holiday cookies and sweets.
Exactly Angie. And a glass of beet juice too! 🙂
This is such a fresh + beautiful salad! :]
I don’t really have any specific goals–I just need to stop eating enough to feed a family of four on a regular basis! 😡
Ha! I have been feeling that way these past few days too Farrah.
My goal is to get back on track and be a positive influence for the rest of the family!
That is a great motivator isn’t it? Great plan Marla.
This is a beautiful salad for some fresh light eating!
I don’t have any dietary goals except to just maintain my whole healthy eating as usual!
Rebecca, thank you so much, and I think that’s a great goal!
Thank you for the wonderful review Katie! So happy you loved that salad, it’s a favorite for me as well!And thank you for help in spreading the message that food still tastes fabulous even when you remove added sugars! Here’s to a super healthy New Year!
Thank you so much for the review copy Brenda! You must be so happy to have it out there, after all your hard work putting it together.I am glad to do a review.