Winter in Minnesota usually means sweaters, slippers, and hands wrapped around a mug of something hot. Since I am not a huge fan of typical “comfort food”, I tend to make soups and stews. But sometimes even that can feel too heavy.
I love my veggies. Most mornings, breakfast is a veggie and fruit smoothie. Go-to snacks are cucumbers with cottage cheese, celery with peanut butter, or raw zucchini with hummus.
Serving salad during the winter usually leaves me feeling chilled, unsatisfied, and a bit cranky. This salad is loaded with good things, and a little more substantial than a typical dinner salad.
I use about 1/2 pound of good quality bacon. Cut the slices into 1 inch pieces, and arrange on a baking sheet. Slice a red onion, separate, and lay over the bacon. Then cut up a package of mushrooms – either shiitake or portobello – and mix them in with the bacon and onion. Toss the pan in a 400 degree oven. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring after about 20 minutes. The bacon should be thoroughly cooked, and the onions should be soft and beginning to caramelize.
While the goodies are in the oven, mix up your dressing. This is not a lovely, stand-alone dressing, but trust me, it goes well with the salad! Whisk together the juice of one lemon, olive oil, dried oregano, and a little squirt of honey. 
Wash the kale leaves, stripping them off the tough stems, and ripping them into palm-sized pieces. Plan on using 2 large kale leaves per person. Get a steamer basket over about 1 inch of boiling water, and steam the kale for 5 minutes. The leaves will be somewhat tender, but not limp, and they will be brilliantly green.
Remember that much of the joy of eating is done with your eyes. This is a colourful salad, and you can make it just as pretty as you want with red and yellow tomatoes, and any other veggies you want to add.
Since we are empty-nesters, I only steam enough kale for the two of us. But the bacon mixture is plenty for about 4 servings. Perfect leftovers! Just heat it slightly in the microwave while you steam a couple leaves of kale another evening, and you will be ready to eat in a flash.
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Winter Kale Salad
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Warm, light, satisfying, beautiful – the best salad for winter.
Ingredients
- Kale leaves – 2-3 for each person, stripped from tough stems and ripped into pieces
- 1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1” pieces
- 1 red onion, sliced into rings
- 1 package mushrooms, sliced
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- grated parmesan cheese
- tomatoes, and any other veggies you like in a warm salad
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place bacon pieces, onion rings and mushroom slices on a deep baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes.
- Rinse kale well. Bring 1″ of water to a boil in a large pan. Using a steamer basket, steam the kale for 5 minutes.
- Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, honey, oregano, salt and pepper. Prepare any additional veggies for the salad.
- To assemble the salads, make a nice bed of steamed kale, pile up about 1/4 of the still-hot bacon mixture on top, decorate with tomatoes, drizzle 1-2 Tbsp of the dressing over everything, and top with some grated parmesan cheese.
