Crispy Roasted Kale Caesar Salad
A warm roasted kale salad with chickpea croutons, avocado and a creamy Caesar dressing! This is easy to make with an amazing texture. Served warm, it's a tasty side dish or the basis for a light meal. The vegetarian Caesar dressing is Greek yogurt based, intensely flavorful and luxurious!
Ingredients
- 14 oz (400 g) canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed and patted dry
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- 8 oz (200 g) kale, washed, patted dry and chopped
- 1 large ripe avocado, sliced
- olive oil, for roasting and frying
Caesar Dressing
- 4 Tbsp (60 ml) Greek yogurt, full fat
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, around half a lemon's yield
- ½ clove garlic
- 2 Tbsp grated parmesan style cheese, see notes
- 1.5 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp capers, in brine
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C / 180C Fan / 400F.
- Prepare the dressing by blending together all of the ingredients using a mini food processor or a hand blender in a small bowl. It's quite a small batch so it can be hard to get it blending in a full size blender - if you don't have anything small enough you may want to double the recipe.
- Prepare the kale. In a large bowl, toss the kale with a small amount of olive oil (just enough for the lightest coating) and scatter over two baking trays, leaving a little space between the leaves. Set aside - we won't actually put them in the oven until the chickpeas are done.
- Prepare the the chickpeas. Get them as dry as possible, then place them in a bowl and use a potato masher to smash them up a little. We want to leave some chickpeas whole, while others are more broken up, to get a good variety of textures.
- Fry the chickpeas. Heat a large saute or frying pan with a shallow layer of oil over a low/medium heat. Add the chickpeas and let them sit for 2 minutes in the pan, then mix them up, let them sit a little longer, and repeat the process until the chickpeas are just starting to turn a more golden color and the smaller pieces are getting crisp. This generally takes around 5 minutes.Add the smoked paprika and garlic powder with another glug of oil and cook for another couple of minutes until there are really defined crispy bits and the spices are well toasted. Make sure the heat is on the lower end for this – we don't want to burn the spices.
- Roast the kale. Now place the kale in the oven for 5-7 minutes until the kale is getting crispy around the edges. Keep a close eye on it, because all ovens are a bit different. If your oven has hot spots it may not cook perfectly evenly (mine certainly doesn't), but a few extra crispy leaves / slightly less crispy leaves in the mix will work out fine.You can use the time it's in the oven to slice your avocado and grate some extra cheese for topping if you wish.
- Assemble your salad! Pour the kale onto a plate and scatter with the chickpeas. Add the avocado slices, then drizzle the dressing over the top and some extra cheese if you're using it. I don't recommend tossing the salad - it will make all the crispy bits soften up. So I like to initially drizzle about 1/2 of the dressing on top, and then allow everyone to add more at the table if they wish.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Your chopped kale needs to go in the oven as dry as possible, so either pre-washed bagged kale for ease or wash your kale in advance and let it air dry for a while. If your kale is freshly rinsed and has a lot of moisture on it, it will steam more than roast in the oven and it just doesn't taste great.
If you need this recipe to be vegetarian, note that real Italian DOP parmesan uses calf rennet in its processing so is not technically vegetarian friendly. Depending on where you live in the world, you have options! In the UK, plenty of cheeses which mimic parmesan but go by the name of “Italian hard cheese” will do the job. Look for the V sign on the packaging! In the US, the name “parmesan” is not protected the way it is in the EU so some parmesan cheeses will be American made and use vegetarian rennet. Check out the ingredients list and always avoid the “DOP parmesan”.
Serving: 1g, Calories: 322kcal, Carbohydrates: 22g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g, Monounsaturated Fat: 15g, Cholesterol: 2mg, Sodium: 404mg, Potassium: 626mg, Fiber: 10g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 5899IU, Vitamin C: 60mg, Calcium: 234mg, Iron: 3mg