Kale Chopped Salad
This delicious Kale Chopped Salad is a powerhouse of veggies with a touch of {optional} bacon. A hearty make-ahead salad that is packed with so much flavor, it might just become your new favorite side dish.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
If kale salads typically make you cringe, this chopped salad might just change your mind! It’s packed with flavor and has a delicious texture similar to coleslaw. Even better, we’re putting some bacon, AKA the candy bar of meats, in it!
While this salad is tasty AF, you’ll love the fact that you can make it as part of your meal prep, and enjoy it for up to five days. That’s right – this is a make-ahead salad!
What’s in This Kale Chopped Salad?
- Kale (kinda obvious, right?)
- Cabbage – we love green and purple
- Carrots
- Celery
- Sunflower seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
- Bacon – related: Air Fryer Turkey Bacon, Whole30 Bacon Brands
The beauty of this salad is all the ingredients are merely suggestions. Add your favorites like peppers, shaved Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower rice, etc. This is the perfect “clean out the crisper drawer” kind of salad. Or even add some Stovetop Candied Pecans.
You can also dress it up by adding roasted veggies (related: How to Roast Frozen Vegetables, Crispy Butternut Squash or Air Fryer Roasted Beets), chunks of roasted garlic (related: Air Fryer Roasted Garlic and Instant Pot Roasted Garlic), chopped nuts or seeds (related: Crunchy Salad Toppers), dried fruit, or even cheese.
If you’re vegetarian or vegan, using tempeh bacon will give your salad an amazing flavor! This post can teach you how to make tempeh bacon for an awesome flavor boost.
I recommend chopping the kale and carrots in a food processor to save a ton of time. Just make sure you use the “pulse” or “chop” function to keep the veggies from getting pureed.
Which Kale is Best for Salads?
Lacinato kale is my go-to here (it might also be referred to as “dinosaur kale” or “Tuscan kale”). It has a flatter-leaf and has a pleasant flavor. In my humble opinion, curly or red Russian kale makes me feel like I’m a cow chewing its cud. Moo.
What to Serve with Kale Salad
You can add your favorite protein to make it a complete meal. We love it with grilled Butcher Box steaks or chicken, or even Air Fryer Tofu. I love to shred leftover meat from a Paleo Roast Chicken and mix some in with the all the veggies. Some easy instant pot hard-boiled eggs would be fabulous as well!
You’ll love yourself forever if you use leftover salad mix to stuff these Air Fryer Egg Rolls. Up to you if you include the sunflower and pumpkin seeds in the egg rolls.
Feta or Halloumi cheese would be amazing in this kale chop salad. Halloumi can be grilled or fried for an awesome crispy texture. See this post on how to cook halloumi for more details.
For the dressing, I prefer poppyseed dressing, but Yogurt Ranch Dressing would work too! Other great options: Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing, Avocado Ranch, or Homemade Green Goddess.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes:
- To make the process even faster, use bacon you’ve already cooked and cooled. Related: How to Bake Bacon in the Oven and Air Fryer Bacon.
- This salad makes A TON, so I recommend you add your favorite dressing to each portion when you serve it. This will keep the salad from wilting and getting soggy in the fridge.
- Don’t love kale? You can add your favorite green instead! I recommend adding them to each individual serving as most greens won’t hold up in a chopped salad stored over a few days.
More Delicious Vegetable Recipes You’ll Love:
- Air Fryer Zucchini Chips
- Instant Pot Potato Salad
- Green Beans in Tomato Sauce
- Hasselback Roasted Beets With Goat Cheese
- The Best Air Fryer Okra
- Instant Pot Steamed Broccoli
- Garlic Butter Green Beans
- Healthy Green Pea Salad
- Fried Cabbage With Bacon
- Crispy Air Fryer Ranch Potatoes
WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS
One serving of Kale Chopped Salad has 1 WW Freestyle SmartPoints.
Kale Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 5 cups kale {cut into thin ribbons}
- 4 cups green cabbage {chopped}
- 4 cups purple cabbage {chopped}
- 2 cups carrots {chopped}{about 3 medium carrots}
- 1 cup celery {chopped}{about 2 stalks celery}
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup bacon {cooked, cooled, and minced}
- Dressing of your choice
Instructions
- Wash and dry all produce.
- Lay your kale on a cutting board, and remove the ribs by slicing along the middle of each side. Thinly chop and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Finely chop the cabbage or pulse in a food processor. Add to the mixing bowl.
- Peel and chop the carrots or pulse in a food processor. Add to the mixing bowl.
- Chop the celery and add it to the bowl.
- Add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and chopped bacon.
- Mix all ingredients with tongs and top each serving with your dressing of choice.
Notes
This recipe was originally published in August 2012. It has been retested and updated with reader feedback. New photos have been added and the recipe has been made printable. For reference, this is one of the photos from the original post:
Shop this Post:
(may include affiliate links)
Sarah! This salad is delicious. I expected it to be a nice, healthy salad, but I couldn’t get enough. I left out the bacon and didn’t have any pumpkin seeds, and still, it was wonderful. Thank you for providing me with another great way to use my abundance of kale.
Paula, I’m so glad you liked it! I find it’s almost a cross between a salad and coleslaw and for whatever reason that makes me happier when eating it. 🙂
Great salad! My husband loved it went back for seconds! He doesn’t like kale so he says…..
Hurray! I love when we can introduce new/hated foods to others. 🙂
This recipe made a ton of delicious salad! I had it without bacon but with tofu and avocado. And then the bacon on the side. Thanks!
Bacon on the side is the name of my band. 🙂