Kale Roasted Cranberry & Smoked Almond Salad

Name: Kale, roasted cranberry & smoked almond salad
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: For the salad :); 1 bag Prepped & washed kale; Seeds of half a pomegranate; Handful of dried cranberries; Handful of smoked almonds ( roughly sliced); 150 g Fresh/frozen cranberries; 1 tbsp Olive oil; 1 tbsp Caster sugar.; For the honey mustard dressing :); 1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt; 1 tsp Runny honey; 1 tsp Grainy mustard; 2 tsp Sherry vinegar; Squeeze of lemon juice; 3 tbsp Olive oil

November 21, 2014 by Laura Scott 26 Comments

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Kale is certainly a vegetable that divides us all. I am certainly in the pro kale camp but I am sure there are many of you out there who are already tuning out because you really do not like kale. I get that it’s leaves are sturdy and therefore take rather more chewing than, say, Savoy or white cabbage.

Kale, roasted cranberry & smoked almond salad

But let me persuade you that eating kale can be a pleasurable experience with my latest dish. How does a kale, roasted cranberry and smoked almond salad sound? These ingredients along with a few dried cranberries and a scattering of crunchy pomegranate seeds make this an absolute winner of a winter salad.

Roasted cranberries

My recipe came about from two things. ONE. I needed to use up last year’s store of frozen cranberries. I thought, why don’t I try and roast them and see what happens? I adapted THIS recipe and it was a revelation. You have to try roasted cranberries of you love sharp almost bittersweet flavours as I do. TWO. Smoked almonds that were sent to me along with a festive hamper from John Lewis. The rest of the hamper will be going to the school fair but I just had to have those almonds. They taste exactly like smokey bacon and provide a meaty note to the salad as well as crunch.

Kale, roasted cranberry & smoked almond salad

This would make a perfect accompaniment to any festive meal but I am largely thinking how well it would go with all the Christmas leftovers. So instead of making the regular leftover bagged salad plus under-ripe tomatoes and soggy cucumber, make this instead!

If you are in need of any further hamper inspiration for Christmas gifts this year, you might want to take a look HERE.

Here are a few more wintery salads from around the web:

Kale, brown rice & red quinoa salad with a miso dressing – Elizabeth’s kitchen diary

Kale, chard, watermelon & avocado salad – Fuss Free Flavours

Kale, wild rice & sweet potato salad – Amuse your bouche

Kale, watermelon & Feta salad – Hungry Healthy Happy

I am linking my salad to the following challenges:

Eat Your Greens – Allotment 2 Kitchen

Simple and in Season – Feeding Boys & Ren Behan

Extra Veg – Fuss Free Living & Utterly Scrummy

Credit Crunch Munch – My little Italian Kitchen, Fuss Free Flavours & Fab Food 4 All

No Croutons Required (veggie) – Lisa’s Kitchen & Tinned Tomatoes

Family Foodies (veggie) – Eat your Veg & Bangers & Mash

Thanks to John Lewis for providing me with a festive gift hamper. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.