Keto Kale Salad with Avocado, Chicken, & Lemon Dressing – by Gastro Guru

Are you in search of a simple keto kale salad with avocado, rooster, and lemon dressing recipe? This one is the very best! Plus, it ticks all of the containers:

• Fast and easy
• Requires little to no cooking
• Low carb and keto-friendly
• Insanely scrumptious

You may love this recipe while you’re in a pinch and wish a fast dinner, and it is excellent in case you’re working out of wholesome lunch concepts.

This massaged kale salad is tender and savory, bursting with flavorful avocado, rooster, and lemon dressing French dressing made with Dijon mustard and black pepper. Crimson onion provides a wonderful pop of coloration, and sesame seed kernels ship a satisfying crunch. The result’s an unbeatable taste mixture that is certain to please even the pickiest of palates. 

In fact, the salad is nice for keto too. All the elements are complete meals and low in carbohydrates, with no sugar or starchy fillers within the dressing. Kale and avocado are each dietary powerhouses, offering loads of micronutrients and electrolytes vital for a wholesome keto weight-reduction plan. A straightforward keto-friendly dish that is full of superfoods and tastes superb – what’s to not love?

Soar to:

🥘 Substances

• Kale
• Avocado
• Rooster breast
• Crimson onion
• Additional virgin olive oil
• Dijon mustard
• Lemon juice
• Pepper
• Sea salt
• White wine vinegar
• Sunflower seed kernels

Kale: the recipe makes use of uncooked Lacinato kale, also referred to as dinosaur kale, Tuscan kale, or cavolo nero. This kale is a little more tender than the curly varieties, making it a wonderful choice for uncooked kale salads. Nonetheless, it does require massaging to make the leaves tender with out cooking. Massaging additionally makes the leaves much less bitter. There are completely different kale varieties to select from, which will be interchanged based mostly on private choice and what’s obtainable in your space. Simply just remember to use uncooked kale as a substitute of frozen choices to make sure the dish is recent – save the frozen kale for cooked dishes or smoothies. Be aware that in case you use child kale, the leaves do not need to be massaged to tenderize, and it’s elective.

Rooster breast: Any cooked rooster breast will suffice. This is a superb alternative to make use of rooster breast made throughout meal prep or time-saving rotisserie rooster. Sautéed or grilled rooster is implausible on this recipe. Simply give the meat time to chill or chill earlier than utilizing it within the salad.

Vinegar: White wine vinegar is used within the recipe, however that you should utilize cider, pink wine, or balsamic vinegar to make the lemon dressing French dressing as a substitute when you’ve got it useful.

Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice is most well-liked, however bottled lemon juice is a suitable substitute if vital. Simply learn the label to verify it aligns along with your dietary wants.

👩‍🍳 Find out how to Make

Put together the kale

The very first thing you need to do is put together the kale. When making the salad, they sometimes use two bunches of kale which yields roughly 8 cups whole as soon as chopped.

Wash the kale leaves and dry totally. Minimize the thick, stocky stems out of every piece with a pointy knife. Or strip the stems out by pulling and tearing off the darkish inexperienced leafy half along with your arms. Discard the fibrous stems.

Chop or tear the leaves into strips or ribbons, and place them in a big bowl.

Drizzle a small quantity of olive oil over the kale, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and therapeutic massage kale till it simply begins to turn out to be wilted and tender, about 30 to 60 seconds, give or take. Don’t over therapeutic massage, or the leaves will turn out to be overworked and lose their salad texture – cease when it begins to wilt, not when it is utterly wilted.

Set the bowl apart and put together the opposite elements.

Chop the elements

Chop the cooked rooster breast into small, half-inch cubes. Add the rooster to the kale.

Cube or slice the pink onion into small items. Add the onion to the bowl.

Minimize the avocado in half and take away the pit. Fastidiously rating the avocado flesh in a grid, horizontally (high to backside) and vertically (crosswise), to create sq. chunks. Scoop out the avocado chunks with a spoon and switch them to the kale salad.

Add the sunflower seed kernels to the salad bowl.

You may both toss the salad now or wait till after it has been dressed.

Getting ready the lemon dressing French dressing

For the salad dressing, use a jar with a lid so you possibly can shake the French dressing to combine all of it collectively shortly. If you do not have a lidded jar or container, use a bowl and whisk as a substitute.

Add further virgin olive oil to the jar, then squeeze the juice of half a lemon in. If utilizing bottled lemon juice, use two tablespoons.

Add in white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, black pepper, and sea salt. Combine the dressing by screwing the lid on tightly and giving all of it a very good shake.

Lastly, pour the dressing over the ready kale salad with avocado and rooster, toss collectively nicely, serve, and luxuriate in!

🗓️ Make-Forward & Meal Prep Ideas

In case you plan to make this salad forward of time, I counsel getting a number of issues prepared however ready to mix the entire parts till you are able to serve. Retailer the elements and dressing individually to make it last more.

For instance, you possibly can chop your whole greens and rooster forward of time throughout your meal prep session. Apart from avocado – do not reduce that till simply earlier than serving.

Get the kale prepared for its therapeutic massage, however maintain off on the therapeutic massage till the day you serve to make it last more. Pre-massaging is an choice, however it should shorten the shelf-life – massaged kale will solely final refrigerated for about three days.

The lemon dressing French dressing is a superb make-ahead choice, so remember to embody this throughout meal prep to avoid wasting time at lunch or dinner. Simply retailer refrigerated till prepared to make use of, then shake nicely earlier than dressing the salad.

🍽️ Recipe Variations

Swap the kale: Have one other leafy inexperienced readily available? Not a fan of kale? Be at liberty to substitute one other darkish leafy inexperienced for the kale on this recipe. Spinach, romaine, or arugula could be implausible swaps with the flavour profile, however be at liberty to get inventive. Simply keep in mind to skip the therapeutic massage step if utilizing one other inexperienced.

Sweeten it up: In case you want candy dressings, there is not any motive you possibly can’t take pleasure in them on keto. Add a small quantity of keto-friendly sweetener to the dressing earlier than shaking and alter to style. Stevia, monk fruit, and erythritol are all fashionable choices. Nonetheless, I want to make use of allulose in liquids as a result of it dissolves utterly and behaves equally to sugar, making it a beautiful one-to-one substitute in recipes.

Get tacky: be at liberty so as to add cheese to the salad. Parmesan is a superb addition to the recipe, however one thing somewhat tangier, like goat cheese, would work as nicely.

Nuts and seeds: sunflower seed kernels at a pleasant little bit of crunch, that you should utilize different nuts and seeds for salad toppings. Chopped walnuts, pinenuts, or almond slices would make wonderful additions or substitutions for the sunflower seeds.

Dressing: In case you’re trying to attempt one thing apart from a lemon French dressing, tahini dressing, yogurt dressing, or avocado dressing would pair nicely with the remainder of the elements.

Protein: So as to add extra protein, contemplate doubling the rooster breast amount. You may also swap your protein utilizing turkey or salmon fillets. Or add somewhat selection by combining multiple meat – bacon crumbles could be divine with the rooster and avocado kale salad.

Vegetarian: The plant-based crowd can nonetheless take pleasure in kale salad on keto. Think about using grilled or baked tofu reduce into cubes to switch the rooster (super-firm is lowest in carbs). Chopped hard-boiled eggs would additionally make a very good meatless choice.

📦 Storage

Keto kale salad with avocado is finest served instantly after preparation. Minimize avocado would not retailer nicely or final lengthy within the fridge. The recipe will be scaled up or down within the interactive recipe card beneath so you may make what you want.

Nonetheless, there are a number of workarounds if you’re planning for leftovers. As an alternative of tossing the avocado with the salad, you possibly can maintain the avocado separate and garnish particular person servings. Moreover, in case you retailer the dressing individually on the aspect and gown solely throughout meal instances, the salad will last more.

The massaged kale salad saved with out avocado or dressing will last as long as three days refrigerated in an hermetic container.

The salad dressing will last as long as two weeks refrigerated in an hermetic container.

🥗 Vitamin Data

With kale and avocado as star elements, it is no shock this dish is wholesome and nutritious. However the different elements within the recipe present dietary advantages as nicely!

Kale is praised as a superfood, excessive in fiber, nutritional vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Not solely is it loaded with nutritional vitamins A, C, and Ok, it’s a wealthy supply of calcium and manganese. Kale can be a low-oxalate leafy inexperienced, which permits the physique to soak up calcium extra readily.

Avocado and further virgin olive oil (EVOO) present a wonderful supply of wholesome fat and include many antioxidants, which can have anti-inflammatory results. These fat are identified to learn coronary heart well being and assist soak up the fat-soluble nutritional vitamins in your meals. Avocado can be a implausible supply of potassium (tremendous important to combat keto flu!).

Rooster is a high-quality supply of protein, lemon juice boosts vitamin C, and the sunflower seed kernels supply a variety of micronutrients.

The recipe ready as written gives excessive quantities of monounsaturated fat, B nutritional vitamins, folate, nutritional vitamins A, C, E, and Ok, calcium, magnesium, and selenium. It is unimaginable how massive an improve your diet can get with one thing so simple as a salad!

The energy and macronutrients (macros) for every serving are supplied within the diet label discovered within the interactive recipe card beneath. Web carbs for every 2-cup serving of the keto kale salad are solely 3g.

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