I've got a fantastic summer salad to share with you. It's light and healthy and feels so good going down. You've simply got to try this Kale, Radish, Parsley Salad. We'll shave our carrot, radish and fennel razor thin with a mandolin for this one which makes for a beautiful presentation. You can use any number of dressings for this, but I kept it real simple with olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon. So light and fresh!
Community Supported Agriculture: A great way to support local farmers
But before I get into that, I would like to welcome you to my Community Supported Agriculture Series. I bought a summer farm share at Clark Farm in Carlisle, MA. This is very exciting. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is all about supporting local farms by buying a share of their harvest before the growing season and receiving farm fresh produce every week for a certain period of time.
I thought it would be fun to post new recipes each week where I use my fresh, organic farm veggies and greens in recipes that you can make too! I know there are a lot of people out there who do CSA in the summer. So this is for all of you!
Back to all the awesome ingredients for this vibrant summer salad. The CSA ingredients I used for this salad are the kale, radish and parsley. The additional ingredients are fennel, carrots, walnuts, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Slicing the veggies for your Kale, Radish & Parsley Salad
I do realize not everyone has a mandolin as a kitchen staple. To be honest, I was only planning to use the mandolin for the fennel, since shaving it really thin works well with this salad. However, I realized my radishes from Clark Farm were really big (bonus!) and proceeded to slice those on the mandolin as well. Another realization: I had purchased a monster carrot from the grocery store and that could work using the mandolin too. I'm sure you see where this is going. That being said, if you do not have a mandolin - have no fear! You can also use your trusty ol' kitchen knife to thinly slice your fennel, radish and carrots!
With Kale, Radish & Parsley Salad you can add all your favorites too!
With this kind of salad, the sky's the limit! For example, if you are not a fan of fennel (I'm a recent convert myself) use some red onion. If you are a fan of fennel - great! You can still add onion too. Or some chopped scallion if you want the onion-y component. When I make salad in the summer, especially with farm fresh organic greens, I will often keep the dressing very simple. For this salad, I opted for olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. And to give it a pop of sweet to complement the carrot slices - you could drizzle a little honey on that too. You could easily use balsamic vinaigrette instead or my tangy garlic scape vinaigrette too. Both are great options for this salad.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! It's so easy - just follow along with my video and we'll make it together! If you enjoyed this recipe, you should check out my other CSA recipes too!
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Kale, Radish, Parsley Salad with Fennel, Carrots & Walnuts
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 portions 1x
Description
This kale, radish and parsley salad makes for a vibrant summer selection. A healthy lunch or a dinner side salad - this fresh, bright salad is a winner!
Ingredients
- 2 cups of chopped kale
- 1 cup of thinly sliced radish
- ⅓ cup parsley, rough chop
- 1 cup thinly sliced carrot
- 1 cup thinly sliced fennel
- Juice from ½ of a lemon
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup walnuts, more if you want
Instructions
- NOTE: All veggies I sliced on the mandolin were on the ⅛” setting.
- Cut top off fennel and slice on mandolin. If you don’t have a mandolin, it’s fine. Just use a kitchen knife and slice as thin as possible. You can save the fennel fronds for garnish if you like. This is the leafy part that kind of looks like dill. Also, I placed the fennel in cold water after I chopped it so it would stay crisp.
- Peel a carrot and slice it on your mandolin or with a knife. I had a giant carrot and was able to get the amount I needed from that one carrot. If you have smaller carrots you’ll need more.
- Cut the top and bottom off the radish and slice on the mandolin. Again, I had huge radishes so it only took two large radishes to give me the amount needed for the recipe. If you have smaller radishes, you’ll need more. Smaller radishes will need to be sliced thin by hand since it will be too difficult on the mandolin.
- Chop your kale leaves. I used the same method as my crunchy baked kale chips. Chop the right side, top, left side, and then discard the stalk. Repeat the process until you have enough.
- Give the parsley a rough chop and you should be good to go. No need to finely chop it. We want some of that leafyness present in the salad.
- Put all your veggies in a bowl and give them a toss to combine.
- Add your olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon, salt and pepper. Toss the salad to coat in the dressing. Transfer to a platter and top with walnuts. You can also just use your favorite dressing here - it's up to you!
Notes
- You can use a mandolin to slice the fennel, carrots and radish, but if you don’t have one that’s okay. Just use your favorite kitchen knife and slice as thin as possible.
- If you have a favorite dressing you think would be good for this go ahead and use that or try my balsamic vinaigrette or garlic scape vinaigrette.
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