Massaged Kale Salad with Shaved Parmesan

A massaged kale salad recipe with shaved parmesan and balsamic that is easy to eat and easy to customize with whatever you have in the fridge! Recipe is gluten free with vegetarian option.

Hi friends!

I’m having one of those days where words just seem to fail me. Work at the hospital has been particularly grueling lately. Residency is tough most of the time but I’m doing some of the longest hours of my entire three years. In the last two weeks, I’ve worked twelve 13-hour night shifts!

It’s a schedule I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I’d love to tell you a witty story to go alongside this post, but due to this tired old brain of mine, the recipe will just have to speak for itself.

This massaged kale salad recipe has been a quick lunch (or is it breakfast when you are waking up at lunchtime after a night shift?) on many occasions in the last two weeks. The nice thing about massaged kale is that it makes it tender and easy to eat, but still has all the health benefits. It’s easy to make and eating it just leaves me feeling great – and ready to tackle another night at the hospital.

This kale salad is inspired by a local restaurant in San Francisco, Darwin Cafe. Their kale salad is legendary. It’s one of the first things I ate when I moved to San Francisco. A friend insisted that eating it was a rite of passage. It’s hard to believe that a handful of ingredients can come together to make something so magical. This is my humble recreation.

Scaling the Recipe

Even though this salad officially has two servings, I can eat the entire recipe myself as a meal. That’s right – one large bunch of kale just for me! Once you massage the kale it’s pretty amazing how the volume shrinks down. If you’re planning on feeding multiple people, I would buy extra kale. You can definitely sneak in another bunch without needing to increase the volume of the liquids.

Adding on to a Basic Kale Salad Recipe

I also often make this recipe without the prosciutto or the radicchio. The massaged kale with balsamic and red pepper flakes make a good “base” salad that you can add pretty much anything to. We often make salads when we need to use up produce in our fridge. I’ve added sautéed mushrooms, pine nuts, dried fruit, all varieties of cheese, and citrus, just to name a few ideas. It’s a great recipe to have in your arsenal for those, “What on earth are we going to eat?” moments.

How Long Does Massaged Kale Keep?

Massaged kale will keep sealed in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Wait until you’re ready to serve to add the dressing.

Thanks so much for reading! For more Sweet in your life, you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube, or subscribe to receive a weekly email with new posts and musings from me.

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This recipe is an update from one first published in August 2015. Wondering what my photos looked like two years ago? Here’s one from the original post: