I used to hate kale.

But that was until I tasted this salad at Ostra, a restaurant on the San Antonio Riverwalk. It was a perfect balance of sweet, tart, savory, and crisp, without the heavy ‘green’ taste I associated with kale leaves.

I liked it so much, I went home and reverse engineered it. This is a delightfully robust salad that is easy to make. And if you are not a fan of kale, having it this way might convert you like it did me!

The salad the way it is posted and pictured here serves six small portions for about $1.00 each. It’s colorful, hearty, and it’s even Keto friendly!

Ingredients:

 4 cups curly green kale with ribs removed torn or chopped in bite size pieces.

6 oz total of blackberries and/or raspberries. Note: You can substitute strawberries, dried apricots, or cherries.

¼ cup chopped pecans . Note: You can substitute chopped walnuts.

¼ cup feta cheese crumbles

The dressing is a balsamic vinaigrette

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons of honey

1 clove minced garlic

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Place all ingredients save for the kale itself in a bowl and whisk until well combined.

Put torn kale in large bowl, pour a little bit of the dressing on it, and massage the kale with your hand for 2-3 minutes. This is the key step, as the massaging helps to break down the fibrous kale leaves, making it soft to the palate. It also seems to mellow out the taste of the kale so that it’s closer to baby spinach in texture.

Place the rest of the ingredients into the bowl and toss together.

Serve in portions but make sure that some of the berries, pecans, and feta cheese remains on top to give it a colorful punch!