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Eight-serving kale salad with orange slices, red onion, prepared walnuts and fresh cranberry vinaigrette
Ebonie Garnica

Kale Salad with Cranberry-Orange Vinaigrette

Thin strips of Lacinato kale, orange slices, red onion, and prepared walnuts are tossed with a tart cranberry dressing, then rest together for one hour. The leaves soften slightly while the walnuts keep some crunch. Because this is a raw-fruit salad, serve it as a Full GAPS snack between meals once raw fruit, vegetables, and walnuts are tolerated.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Rest 1 hour
Servings: 8 servings
Course: Side Dish
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Salad
  • 1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 oranges, divided
  • 2 bunches Lacinato kale, thick stem ends removed and leaves sliced thinly
  • 1/2 cup prepared walnuts, completely dried and chopped after soaking
Cranberry-orange vinaigrette
  • 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice, taken from the measured oranges listed above
  • 1 tablespoon additive-free apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
  • 2 teaspoons raw honey
  • 3/4 teaspoon natural mineral sea salt
  • 4 tablespoons raw extra-virgin olive oil

Equipment

  • Small bowl
  • Food processor
  • Knife
  • Large glass or ceramic salad bowl
  • Measuring cup
  • Whisk
  • Strainer
  • Salad servers

Method
 

  1. Put the sliced onion in a bowl and cover with cold water. Leave it there while preparing the fruit and vinaigrette.
  2. Pulse the cranberries in a food processor 12 to 15 times, just until finely chopped. Stop before they become a wet puree.
    Finely pulsed fresh cranberries beside orange rounds and one tablespoon orange juice
  3. Stand half of the measured oranges on one end, cut away their peels, and slice them into thin rounds. Put the rounds in a large glass or ceramic salad bowl.
  4. Halve the remaining oranges. Squeeze the measured orange-juice amount from half of these remaining oranges into a measuring cup. Thinly slice the other half and add those slices to the salad bowl.
  5. Whisk the measured juice with the apple cider vinegar, ginger, honey, salt and olive oil. Stir in the chopped cranberries.
  6. Add the kale and measured prepared walnuts to the orange slices. Drain the red onion and add it to the bowl.
    Kale orange red onion and prepared walnuts beside cranberry-orange vinaigrette before tossing
  7. Pour the vinaigrette over the kale and toss about 10 times. The leaves should look evenly glossy, with the cranberry pieces spread throughout.
  8. Leave the dressed salad at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. The kale should bend more easily than it did when freshly sliced while retaining some chew.

Notes

Measure the walnut amount shown only after the walnuts are ready. If you are preparing a larger batch, cover four cups raw walnuts with warm filtered water by at least two inches and add one tablespoon natural mineral salt. Soak for 7 to 24 hours, drain and dry at the oven's lowest setting or in a dehydrator until crisp all the way through. Chop the measured walnuts for this salad and keep the rest for another use.
Keep the olive oil cold in the vinaigrette. The measured apple cider vinegar provides the sharp note alongside the measured orange juice; no extra acid is needed. The orange slices and raw kale make this a later Full GAPS salad rather than an early Introduction Diet dish.
Prep time starts after walnut preparation. Add the walnuts before dressing and the one-hour rest. The orange juice shown comes from the measured oranges, not an extra orange. Later Full GAPS raw-fruit snack between meals after tolerance.

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