Baby Kale Salad with Grapefruit, Avocado, and Almonds
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This baby kale salad with pink grapefruit, creamy avocados, toasted almonds, and salty parmesan is absolutely delicious. It’s a simple salad that’s bursting with flavors. Sweet, tangy, salty, creamy, crunchy … this salad has it all!
This is a good one, friends! Tender baby kale leaves are so different than regular kale that they’ve been known to convert kale skeptics. Plus, we love our salads with lots of contrasting flavors and textures.
In this baby kale salad recipe, we toss the tender leaves in a sweet grapefruit vinaigrette. Then, creamy diced avocados, nutty toasted almonds, tangy grapefruit segments, and salty parmesan join the party. It’s a match that tastes truly special. It can be our little secret that it’s simple to make.
Best dressing for baby kale salad
Kale is a bitter green that tastes best with a bit of sweetness. My popular kale salad dressing goes really well with this salad, but we also love the grapefruit vinaigrette version in this recipe. We sweeten it with honey to reduce the kale’s bitterness while keeping the recipe refined-sugar-free.
Baby kale salad variations
We love the combination of tart grapefruit, toasted almonds, creamy avocados, and salty parmesan with baby kale. But you can switch things up based on what’s in your kitchen and what you love to eat.
- Use oranges instead of grapefruit.
- Try using goat cheese, Boursin, or feta instead of the parmesan cheese.
- Swap the almonds for some toasted pecans, walnuts, or even cashews.
- For a sweeter salad, throw in a handful of dried cranberries or raisins.
Should I massage baby kale?
Massaging kale helps soften the leaves and makes them more pleasant to eat, but with baby kale, it’s usually not necessary. Baby kale is much more tender than mature kale, so it doesn’t need the same treatment.
If your salad still feels a bit chewy, there’s an easy alternative: let the dressing sit on the leaves for 2–3 minutes before eating. The acid in the dressing will gently soften the kale on its own, making the salad more enjoyable by the time you dig in.
Baby Kale Salad with Grapefruit, Avocado, and Almonds
Ingredients
- 5 ounces baby kale
- 1 pink grapefruit (peeled and segments cut out)
- ¼ cup toasted slivered almonds
- 1 avocado (sliced)
- Optional: parmesan cheese
Best Dressing for Baby Kale Salad
- 2 tablespoons pink grapefruit juice (squeeze this from what’s left of the grapefruit after you cut out the segments)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
Instructions
- Place the baby kale, grapefruit segments, almonds, avocados, and if using, the parmesan in a large salad bowl.5 ounces baby kale, 1 pink grapefruit, ¼ cup toasted slivered almonds, 1 avocado, Optional: parmesan cheese
- Add the salad dressing ingredients to a jar then shake the dressing until it is slightly creamy looking.2 tablespoons pink grapefruit juice, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon honey, ¼ teaspoon dijon mustard, 1 pinch salt and pepper
- Pour the dressing over the kale, toss gently to mix, then let the salad sit for 2-3 minutes so that the kale softens slightly.
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
This salad was a nice, light summery salad. Though, I don’t know how I feel about kale. Next time I might try with spinach. And grapefruit is so much hassle to segment! Not something i would do every day. I used extra light tasting olive oil. My hands are soft from massaging the kale!