Holiday feast season is upon us. But there’s lots of room on the table for brightly-colored, nutritious foods. Show us your sweet or savory, naturally-colored/naturally-dyed holiday fare. Theme via idea from Casey the College Celiac.
A Kale Salad perfect for any holiday spread. Filled with nutritious kale, pomegranate arils and walnuts, the colors and flavors in this nutritious dish are festive and oh so flavorful!
I’ve been holding out on listening to Christmas music.
Recently I took a “strengths” test and my number one strength is discipline…so when it comes to rules and boundaries I typically have no issues complying, but this year I have had the urge to listen to Christmas music since Halloween!
After giving into my “craving” one afternoon while baking up some delicious holiday recipes for the blog it hit me – this is one of the few years that I am not involved in a holiday singing group or performance of some sort. In previous years, I would have been practicing music for my holiday performances sometimes as early as September! So, even though I wasn’t listening to Christmas music, I was still getting my fix.
The struggle is real 😉
Are you holiday/Christmas music fans? Or can you wait until the day after Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is merely two days away and I am bursting at the seams with excitement, so when I found out the Recipe Redux theme for today was all things holiday I knew I had to join in.
If you are new around here, The Recipe Redux is a monthly recipe challenge founded by registered dietitians (the only one founded by RDs to be exact!). The focus is taking delicious dishes and making them a little bit better for you while still maintaining all their wonderful flavors. Each month we have a theme that we create our recipes around, and this month the theme is:
Naturally Colored Holiday Treats and Trimmings
This salad may be a bit of a copout, but I was at a loss and the pomegranates looked amazing…so I went with the green of the kale and the red of the pomegranate for a salad that is seriously SO good and absolutely holiday colored 🙂
It’s really simple to make, especially if you are hosting or sharing with a crowd.
To break things up – I would roast the nuts ahead of time. You could then store them in an airtight container until you are ready to toss the salad together.
If you are transporting the salad – I recommend mixing the greens, pomegranate, and walnuts together but transporting the dressing in a separate container. Once you arrive to your gathering and are ready to serve, toss the salad with the dressing and voila! You are ready for a healthy holiday feast.
If you give this recipe a try, tag @trebleinthekchn or #trebleinthekitchen on instagram so I can see your lovely creation!
Kale Salad with Walnuts and Pomegranate
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- For the walnuts:
- 1 Tbsp water
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp cayenne
- 2 cups raw walnuts
- For the salad dressing:
- 1½ tsp dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 3 Tbsp walnut oil
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- For the salad:
- 1 large bunch of kale (or about 5 loosely packed cups of chopped kale)*
- 1 pomegranate (remove the seeds like this)*
Instructions
- For the walnuts:
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place foil or a silicone baking mat on a rimmed baking sheet. In a medium bowl, whisk the water, maple syrup and spices. Add the nuts and coat with the maple mixture. Spread the nuts in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes or until fragrant. Keep an eye on them! Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- For the salad:
- Make the dressing by whisking together the mustard, lemon juice and maple syrup. While whisking, drizzle in the walnut oil until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place the kale in a large bowl and coat with dressing, adjusting to taste. Remove the seeds from the pomegranate and add the seeds to the dressed kale. Once the walnuts are cooled, add to the salad.
Notes
If you are making this salad ahead of time, mix the kale, walnuts, and pomegranates but store the dressing in a sealed container until ready to serve.
This recipe has not been tested for FODMAP content, but the ingredients are used in amounts that are compliant with the Monash University app.
*1/2 cup of kale is considered low FODMAP, adjust the serving size by cutting the portion in half if completing the elimination phase of the low FODMAP diet.
**45g of pomegranate is considered low FODMAP, adjust the serving size of the entire salad by cutting the portion in half if completing the elimination phase of the low FODMAP diet.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: salad, side dish, holiday, low fodmap, gluten free, dairy free, grain free
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of recipe
- Calories: 303
- Sugar: 18 g
- Sodium: 316 mg
- Fat: 22 g
- Carbohydrates: 27 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 6 g
Questions of the day:
- Have you started listening to holiday music?
- What are you most looking forward to on Thanksgiving?
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Leave a comment
Good morning! What if I don’t have and can’t access walnut oil? Can I substitute?
Hi Michelle!
Great question – you can absolutely sub and just use olive oil. That being said, it will not have AS nutty of a flavor but the salad will still be tasty! Would love to know how it turns out for you!
Such a refreshing dish!
Absolutely!! Thanks, Karman!
I love pomegranates! And those walnuts… you canot go wrong with those on a salad.
Absolutely!! Thanks, Laura!
Yay! Time for pomegranates! You’ve def got a nutrient packed salad there
Pomegranates are so delish and fun because I don’t eat them very often 🙂
Such beautiful colors here!
Thank you so much, Ginger!
Good tip for transporting the salad! Thanks for sharing!
Of course! Thanks Becca!