How to Prepare Kale for Salad

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy Kale salad. A special technique is used to tenderise it. For the best-tasting kale salad, it is important to prepare kale for salad. Here is how to prepare kale for making a salad to turn raw kale into soft, delicious kale salad in minutes.

The single most important thing you can do to make the best kale salad is to prepare Kale for making the salad. Also, I am sharing all the tips and answering questions regarding the same.

When you look at a bowl of kale salad you look forward to chewy, silky leaves and not raw, poky, or difficult to eat food. So you here are few tips just to do that.

Which Kale needs to be prepared

Not all varieties of kale taste similar. Some varieties of kale are delicate and do not need massaging. Curly kale is good for massaging it because it is hearty and fibrous and massaging it will turn it into soft, and luscious for salad.

How to prepare kale for Salad?

Remove the stem

The first step is to cut Kale. Raw kale needs to be deveined first. I start with removing the fibrous rib running through kale leaf. It is actually not very appetising to eat. Trust me even if you remove this Kale will have enough fibre remaining for your health.

Cut It Up

After removing the middle rib running through kale, you need to chop it or tear it into small pieces or thin shreds. It makes it better to consume.

How to Massage Kale

Massaging kale makes a huge difference in terms of texture and taste. It breaks down the fibrous cells. Massaging the kale with some oil and salt or lemon and salt will soften it in 3 minutes.

First add olive oil and add a little bit over cut kale.

To massage, take a handful of kale leaves in your hands and squeeze them with moderate pressure. Rub kale with Lemon juice, oil and salt. You need to scrunch, release, scrunch, release.

Do this till all the leaves are well scrunched. Kale leaves are tough and borderline hard, so don’t worry, keep scrunching them. The regular scrunch will turn the kale dark green and will release a delicious flavour.

So to soften the kale all you need is 3 minutes and a quick massage to tenderize or soften raw kale.

Why to Massage Kale

To soften the kale and break down the fibre so that it becomes soft to eat, massaging the kale is a must.

You can either massage it first and toss the dressing later or you can toss in the dressing and then massage the kale. Massaging kale makes it tender, chewable and easy to digest.

Also, it absorbs flavours during the massage so salad overall becomes flavourful.

Choose the right dressing

Kale salad tastes best when enjoyed with the right dressing. Hearty salty salad dressings with goat cheese, feta or parmesan pairs well with kale. But for the best tasting salad make sure to add acidic element be it vinegar or lemon. Lemon or vinegar dressing will help break down the fiber in kale and make it soft and tasty to enjoy. 

How to Use Ribs from Kale

To make the best kale salad, it is important to remove the tough ribs from the kale. whichever variety of kale you are using just remove the ribs. Ribs or the stems of kale leaves should not be eaten raw.

But like me, if you do not want to throw away ribs, you can chop and saute them separately. but do not eat them raw.

How to separate Ribs from Kale

To remove kale ribs, separate the kale leaves first. On a chopping board place a leaf upside down. With a knife cut a v shape along both sides of the ribs, cutting it free from the leaf. 

You can also pull the leaves from the ribs with your fingers by holding the stem/rib and pulling down the leaves. 

These are a few ways to prepare kale for salad. I hope you will give them a try to make your kale salad from good to super delicious 🙂

Also do let me know which is your favourite kale salad? Mine is coming up soon here.