Lemony Kale Salad with Apples, Cashews, and Blue Cheese

This Lemony Kale Salad with Apples, Cashews, and Blue Cheese is crunchy and light, tart and sweet.

Hello, January! Thank you for coming to the rescue of those of us who were overserved, overstuffed, and overrun last month. It’s high time for a little calm and quiet. And kale.

A Lemony Kale Salad with Apples, Cashews, and Blue Cheese will help us usher in a healthy – and delicious – new year. Crunchy and light, tart and sweet, this is the thing to chase away the blahs brought on by one (or a few) too many late-night martinis. The secret to making it taste amazing is in the massage. Crazy as that might sound, the kale needs a somewhat rough massage with the lemon-olive oil-garlic dressing to whip it into shape, soften it a bit. Kind of the way the kale is going to hopefully whip us into shape after keeping it on heavy rotation this week.

Happy, healthy, yummy New Year!

Lemony Kale Salad with Apples, Cashews, and Blue Cheese

Juice from 1 lemon, about ¼ cup
½ cup olive oil
2 smashed cloves of garlic
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
6 to 8 cups chopped kale leaves
2 ounces finely crumbled blue cheese
½ cup cashews, chopped (I like raw unsalted cashews here, but use what you have and like)
½ apple, cut into matchsticks (I like Honeycrisp)

In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper together. Let the dressing sit on the counter for about 10 minutes.

Place the kale in a large bowl. Remove the garlic cloves from the dressing and discard. Pour the dressing on the kale and “massage” it in with your hands for a couple of minutes. Let the dressed kale rest for 30 minutes. 

Just before serving, toss the dressed kale with the blue cheese, cashews, and apples.