the best kale salad with radicchio and farro
This really is the best kale salad you’ll ever eat! With radicchio, farro, toasted walnuts, and a tangy lemon miso dressing, every bite is wholesome and delicious.
To make it even better, make it an hour or two in advance to give the flavors a chance to meld. And since it stores well, its great salad for meal prepping!
mud season
In early spring I start craving bright colors in my food. I’m done with the warm reds and browns of winter stews, braises, and roasts. Instead I want light and bright, but still hearty enough to get me through the cold spring days of Upstate New York. This kale salad is one of my spring staples- farro makes it filling, radicchio adds a pop of purple and slight bitterness, toasted walnuts for crunch, and a lemon-miso dressing to tenderize the kale and mellow the radicchio.
Radicchio is one of my absolute favorite greens, with its bright color and bitter flavor. It’s not a lettuce, but a chicory. Wild chicory is a common roadside summer weed, and there are several cultivated forms including radicchio, curly endive, Belgian endive, and escarole. Though available in grocery stores year round, the chicories are at their best late fall through spring.
bitter greens
Chicories, endives, and lettuces all get their bitter taste from sesquiterpene lactones. These chemical compounds are secondary metabolites, meaning that they are not required for normal plant growth and development. Instead they are produced in response to environmental and ecological conditions. The bitter tasting compounds repel herbivorous insects and microbial pathogens.
Chicories, endives, and lettuces are much more palatable in the cooler months than in the summer. In the summer, long days and high temperatures inducing bolting, which is when the leafy crop produces a flowering stem. As these plants flower, they also increase their production of sesquiterpene lactones and other defensive compounds to protect the developing flowers and seeds.
There are a few ways to mellow out the bitterness in chicories if you find it overwhelming:
- avoid summer grown; plants are less biter when grown in cool temperatures and with shorter days
- soak in cold water
- thinly slice/shred
- roast, sear, or grill
- acidic and salty flavors are better at taming the bitterness than sweet- think lemon, vinegar, feta, olives, anchovies, and parmesan
I fell in love with this kale salad, adapted from Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky’s Run Fast Eat Slow, during my marathon training days. This is a nutrient packed and filling salad, and makes a lot of food without much effort. And though its delicious freshly made, it tastes even better the next day.
To make it gluten-free, substitute the farro with any other gluten-free whole grain, such as brown rice, sorghum, or oat groats.
kale salad with radicchio and farro
Ingredients
- 1 c farro
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 head radicchio
- 1 recipe lemon miso dressing see below
- 1 c toasted walnuts
- ½ c Parmesan cheese grated
lemon miso dressing
- 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp white miso
- ½ c extra-virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook farro: add farro to medium saucepan and cover with a few inches of salted water. Bring to a boil, reduced heat, and simmer uncovered until farro is tender (check your farro packaging for cooking times as there are a few different types of farro). Drain and let cool slightly.
- As the farro cooks, prepare the veggies. Remove large stems from kale and thinly slice. Core and thinly slice radicchio.
- Make the dressing: whisk together juice from 1 lemon and miso in a jar or small bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add sliced kale to large salad bowl and toss with ⅔ of the dressing. Gently massage the kale for about 1 minute to soften. Add radicchio, farro, walnuts, Parmesan, and remaining dressing. Mix well and serve.
I love this salad! It’s one of my favorites. The lemon miso dressing is so good. I like to top the salad with a hard-boiled egg or an avocado.
That’s a great idea to add in a hard-boiled egg or avocado! I’ll have to try that!