When the temperatures dips, my salad cravings shift from light and crisp to dense and hearty. So here’s some serious fall salad inspo: Massaged Lacinato Kale with Roasted Sweet Potato, Apple and Toasted Hazelnuts. Top it with roasted chicken (store-bought rotisserie!) or salmon, or baked tofu and it’s a complete meal.

Here is a roadmap type of recipe. If you’d like to see making this in a reel, head over to Instagram.

If you don’t know what “massaging” kale means, here is a post that shows you how.

More kale salad recipes?

Try one of these from my archives.

• CAESAR-ISH KALE AND ROASTED BROCCOLI SALAD WITH AVOCADO AND TOASTED WALNUTS

• A KALE AND BRUSSELS SPROUTS SALAD BASE FOR ALL WINTER LONG

• ROASTED WINTER SQUASH, FARRO AND GARLICKY KALE SALAD

• LACINATO KALE, ROASTED WILD MUSHROOM AND AVOCADO SALAD

Ingredients

• 1-2 sweet potatoes, cut into 1 in cubes
• Evoo + kosher salt and pepper
• 1 big bunch lacinato kale, stripped and torn into bite size pieces (if kale is too high-mai, use 5 oz baby arugula and skip massage)
• 1 crisp apple, thinly sliced
• 3 oz crumbled goat cheese or shaved parm or crumbled sharp cheddar or blue cheese
• 1/2 c toasted hazelnuts or walnuts or almonds or pecans
• A little mint if you’d like
• Vinaigrette (juice of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp minced shallots, 1 tsp honey, pinch red pep flakes, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/3 c evoo)

Method

1. Toss sweet potatoes with a couple tbsp evoo and season with salt and pepper on parchment lined sheet tray. Roast for 30-35 min at 425 until nicely browned. Cool on sheet tray.
2. Massaged stripped kale with a tbsp evoo and pinch of salt. Dress kale with vinaigrette then top with most of apples, cheese, sweet potatoes and nuts. Toss with clean hands. Finish salad with leftover goodies to make pretty.

Serves 4ish