Who says all holiday dishes have to be heavy and fattening? After indulging in holiday goodies, my taste buds always start craving something light and healthy! Making a recipe that captures seasonal tastes while still being nutrient dense is right up my alley. Enter Tropical Kale Salad, full of oranges, pomegranate, chickpeas and macadamia! Aromatic, sweet, and quenching, citrus are the perfect winter produce to make a bright dish!
For the salad, all you need are two cans of chickpeas, about 1.5 cups of pomegranate arils, three to four oranges, one cup of macadamia nuts and a head of kale.
Cut the oranges into bite sized pieces. Save some of the peelings for zest!
Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl.
Set aside and prepare the dressing. You’ll need:
- 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice, about one whole orange
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Pour the dressing over the chickpea salad and mix to combine.
Garnish with 1 tbsp of orange zest –
Add in the delicious toasted mac nuts –
So simple. So flavorful. Filled with nutrition and tropical superfoods.
This would make a healthy side dish for your next get together or a fantastic entree salad for one or two. I’ve been eating it for a delicious and healthy lunch.
Tropical Kale Salad
Ingredients
- For the salad
- 2 cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 3 oranges
- 1 fresh pomegranate or about 1.5 cups of arils
- 1 head kale
- 1 cup of macadamia nuts
- For the dressing
- Dressing
- 1/4 c freshly squeezed orange juice one orange
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/4 c olive oil
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel and chop 2 of the oranges and juice the third.
- Remove pom seeds from the pomegranate.
- Wash and chop kale into bite size pieces.
- Drain and rinse chickpeas.
- Massage kale with olive oil and salt for 2 minutes.
- Toss kale with orange segments, pom seeds and chickpeas.
- Add orange juice and vinegar. Toss to combine.
- Season with black pepper and any additional salt.
- Toast macadamia nuts until fragrant and add on top of salad.
Love this! It’s tropical with a winter holiday twist! I bet the orange pairs really nicely with the slightly bitter taste of Kale, I’ve been juicing a lot of kale recently I need to get it back in salad form!
I really love these ingredients, especially for the dressing; it sounds so fresh and light!
Yum! Bet that toasted pine nuts and dried currants would go well in this, too. Thanks for the tasty idea!
Hi Kath! Are those blood oranges?
Cara Cara!
I love the turtleneck dress! What is the material like?
It’s a sweater dress from Loft – thanks!
Perfect, I was looking for a use for an extra pomegranate that I grabbed on sale.
This looks delicious! Does your recipe call for toasted coconut? I spied some on top of the salad in the last photo but didn’t see it in your recipe. If so, seems like it would add a nice flavor!
Good eye – I did add some at the end and it was awesome!!
Wow! Kath, this looks really delicious and very enticing. This salad is lovely. I have actually had one with cashew nuts, strawberry and red pepper at my vegetarian friend’s place. I bet your own recipe will also surely leave one with a perfect blend of crunchy and sweet feeling in the mouth.
Oh this sounds like a delicious light salad! And I love the fun fonts you used! 🙂