Kale salads have been all the rage for a while and with good reason- when properly prepared they are just so yummy that you forget kale is actually good for you. If someone tells me they had a kale salad and didn’t like it, I naturally assume that the person who made the salad forgot a crucial step - you have to massage the kale. Really there is no other word for it. Just add your dressing or even a little olive oil and salt and gently knead it for a minute or two. That sounds weird, but it works. The texture is right and the taste is perfect. We have kale salads frequently in our house and enjoy a lot of different ingredients, and flavors. Still both of my guys adore a classic Caesar salad with our homemade dressing that typically involves romaine lettuce.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but my refrigerator revealed a bunch of kale and no romaine, so Kale Caesar it was! The dressing we love for a Caesar salad is truly a genius makeover. No one in my crowd has any intention of eating a raw egg – at least if they know about it – so I use mayo for the base. The healthier canola version is fine in this dressing. It gives it such a nice creamy consistency, and everything else is a usual Caesar dressing suspect, olive oil, anchovies, lemon, Parmesan, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce. Kale salads actually benefit from a brief stay in the fridge before serving, so I mixed everything up and gave it a taste. Delicious, but it needed a little something to take it over the top. Croutons would be traditional, but instead I decided to roast a whole head of garlic until soft and browned, then removed the cooled cloves and used them as croutons. Perfection. The sweet soft garlic with crispy outsides just made the whole thing irresistible. I almost fainted when my husband asked for more. That’s when we named it Hail Kale Caesar! You’ll love it.
Kale Caesar Salad with Garlic Croutons
Ingredients
1 head plus one clove garlic
2 Tbsp mayonnaise (may use olive or canola mayo)
Juice of ½ lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp anchovy paste
¼ cup Parmesan cheese grated, more if desired for topping
I bunch Kale – there are a lot of varieties, I intend to experiment
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Chop the top off of the whole garlic (save the single extra clove for dressing)
Place whole garlic on a piece of aluminum foil, top with a few drops of olive oil
and a sprinkle of salt.
Fold foil loosely around garlic and bake for 45 minutes to an hour until garlic is soft and lightly browned. Allow to cool before peeling.
In a large bowl combine 1 minced garlic clove, lemon juice, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, and anchovy paste.
Wash and dry kale and remove touch stems.
Tear or cut into bite size pieces.
Add kale to dressing in bowl and mix by hand massaging kale for about a minute.
Taste for salt and top with roasted garlic cloves and extra Parmesan if desired.
*Kale mixed with dressing can sit in the fridge for an hour. Add garlic cloves right before serving.
