I’ll be the first to admit that I’m semi-addicted to the Whole Foods bar.
There are so many delicious items on the bar that I often end up filling my container to the brim with different veggies, beans, salads and the like. Then I end up paying an arm and a leg for my meal. Totally worth it. 
Of course, I have some favorite items on the bar – one being the Cracklin’ Cauliflower, which I’ve already recreated at home and the second is the garlicky kale. <– both of which are in the photos above. After reading the ingredient list for the garlicky kale salad at the bar (shh… here’s a little secret – all items on the bar have an ingredient list posted) I decided to make my own variation at home. I knew the ingredients but didn’t know the exact measurements so it took a little trial and error. I’ve made it several times now and tonight’s recipe was the best yet so I figured now would be a great time to share.
Garlicky Kale Salad
Inspired by the Whole Foods salad bar
- 1/2 bunch raw kale, washed, de-stemmed and dried
- 1 T tahini
- 1 T apple cider vinegar (or water)
- 1 T lemon juice
- 1 T Bragg’s liquid aminos (tamari or soy sauce would work too)
- 2 T nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp. minced garlic (1 – 2 cloves of garlic)
- sesame seeds, to taste as garish (optional)
- Break or cut kale into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl.
- Puree all ingredients except kale and sesame seeds in a blender or food processor to blend the dressing.
- Pour dressing over kale and massage into the kale with your hands until all pieces of kale are coated.
- Let the salad sit in the fridge for an hour or so to marinate. You can skip this step if you need to eat right away, but allowing some time to marinate will wilt the kale a bit and make it a little more palatable – particularly for those who are skeptical of eating raw kale.
- Sprinkle on some sesame seeds before serving if so desired.
I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
Do you have any Whole Foods salad/hot bar favorites? Have you ever recreated your favorite store-bought or restaurant dishes at home?
Brittany Mullins, HHC
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the recipe! I just bought a bunch of kale (my first time!) and was wondering how to go about eating it, haha.
I’ve always loved WF’s peach BBQ seitan. Perhaps next time I’ll write down the ingredients so I can recreate it at home…
I’m obsessed with the Whole Food hot bar as well. Fortunately for my wallet, I no longer live within walking distance of a Whole Foods. I really like their Indian food selections, but I’ve never tried to recreate any of their food at home. I probably should though since it would be much cheaper than paying by the pound.
No whole foods sadly, but I do love Wegmans hot food bar. Almost the same thing!
I too am addicted to the Whole Foods hot bar…I go there almost everyday that I don’t bring my lunch to work! I love it so much that I walk a mile uphill BOTH WAYS! Actually, I just walk through Beacon Hill…but I like to pretend that I’m foraging for my lunch because I walk so far!
I love when they have Mexican food with that giant trough of guacamole!
I am also addicted to the WF’s salad bar. I stop by on my way to work every Wednesday to do a little grocery shopping and make a crazy combo in the salad bar for lunch! It’s so good, except for the few days when they don’t have kale!
Mmm I love whole food’s salad bar as well! The only problem is, I can never stop myself from loading up… which means paying more than $10 for a salad bar meal. So, I try to stick to Martin’s.
I’ve never eaten from a salad bar OR had kale. I think I need to remedy these things as soon as possible!
I’ve seen so many recipes using raw kale and have never tried any. I think I will try this recipe because it sounds so good! Thanks for sharing!
ahh I do that all the time with the food bars I love recreating recipes. I cant wait to try this one out I LOVE their kale @ whole foods yum!
No joke-I’d live at WF if I could!
The Whole Foods Hot Bar is a dangerous place for me to visit…good thing Whole Foods is few and far between in Canada…a blessing to my wallet!
I always wonder, “how did I just spend $17 on salad?” But then I forget about that small detail and dig in!
I found your blog (and this blogpost) by typing “garlicky kale whole foods” into my Google search box…and here you are! The garlicky kale is one of my favorite things ever, I’ve been known to fill up a huge container and eat it for lunch! Sadly, they didn’t have it on my last visit so I’m so glad I found your recipe
I’m off to Whole Foods right now to buy the ingredients! Thanks!
they steam then blanche their kale before
I just made this recipe and thanks so much for posting it. I’m in the DC area and I went to three WFs and for some reason no one what the measurements and proportions are for the Garlicky Kale Salad.
You can tweak this to suit your tastes…I tripled the recipe because I want to use the dressing on my raw broccoli as well. I used tamari (soy sauce) instead of the liquid amino acids and it was a bit saltier than the store version. I also added extra virgin olive oil because a few other copy cat recipes recommend EEVO.
I toned down the tahini when I increased the recipe and increased the lemon juice and garlic.
End result (tripled recipe):
2.5 TBS Nutritional Yeast
1 TBS Minced Garlic
1.5 TBS Lemon juice
1.5 TBS Tamari
1.5 TBS Water
1 T Tahini
1.5 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Thanks so much for sharing your version of the recipe Crystal! How much kale did you use?
We love this recipe! The only change we made was substituting a tablespoon of miso paste for the nutritional yeast.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I just got the recipe tonight from the Whole foods cook. They told me to use the kale raw and the recipe was for much larger amounts. It started with 1/2 lb of garlic roasted! I was told Whole Foods keeps a recipe book of all their recipes in case anyone wants one.
The kale is this recipe is raw, I just recommend washing it.
This recipe might now be identical to the Whole Foods recipe because I have modified the ingredient amounts for at-home prep. Whole Foods makes recipes is large quantities because they are serving so many people.
I made a double batch of this for Thanksgiving this past weekend, and my family went nuts for it! Thanks for the recipe. Now I don’t have to dish out so much money at the Whole Foods salad bar!!
So glad you enjoyed the kale salad Melody!!
Love your recipe! My sister found this a few months ago and it’s become a staple for us both! Actually your variation tastes better than WF! I’m blogging about it tonight and I’ll add the link up to your blog. Thank you for sharing this!
So glad you like the recipe Deana!! Thanks for blogging about it as well.
It’s the best! Blog is up http://pinksugarbowl.blogspot.com/2012/01/garlicky-kale-salad-turkey-burgers.html Going to start following you, my sister had only given me the recipe. Now I know who perfected it! : )
just made this for lunch for my boyfriend and i – it was delicious!! although – DUH – forgot to add the nutritional yeast!!! i’m sure that addition will make the dressing EVEN more yummy but good to know if i don’t have it on hand it is still a tasty salad. thanks for re-creating!
Hi Randi – thank you for coming back and letting me know you tired this recipe. I’m glad you liked it as it’s one of my favs.
This is wonderful! My girlfriend moved here (the uk) from the US, and the one thing she misses the most is the wholefoods salad bar – and this was her favourite thing on it.
I just followed the recipe exactly, and it’s indistinguishable! I really can’t thank you enough – we’ll be eating kale now until it comes out of our ears.
THANK YOU! I am desperately in love with this salad and on a whim went searching for it. And here it is. Great ingredients. Can’t wait to make some at home!
I hope you love it Natalia!!
Fabulous recipe! I made it yesterday for a potluck and everyone wanted the recipe so I forwarded the link. It is as good or better as the one at Whole Foods. Great job orchestrating the flavors. Thanks!
I just made this and it’s BETTER than the kale at Whole Foods! So easy to make, too. Thanks for the recipe! : D
So glad you liked it Andrea!!
I am so thankful to find this recipe!!
This is my favorite thing at wf, which is not real close to my house.
Nest to find the yummy woodland mushroom salad I got there yesterday.
Brittany – thanks so much for your garlicky kale recipe. I have been going into WF for lunch 3-4 times a week eating their garlicky kale. I looked at your recipe about 20 times on this website before I actually tried it. I’m a “buy it pre-made” kinda guy, but I was inspired to save the $$$ I’ve been paying to WF. Your recipe worked great. My food processor did not grab all the tahini, but I stuck some of the kale pieces in the food processor and wiped all the good stuff flavor off the bottom and sides. Thank you so much. It looks like a have a lot of dressing on the bottom of my bowl. When I eat up the kale for lunch (I see it as 2 lunches worth), I’m going to try to reuse the remaining dressing.
Thank you sooo much! I was at Whole Foods today and wrote down the ingredients to play with at home, but now you’ve saved me trouble. I cant wait to try this tonight
I used to make this salad all the time when I worked for the company. Try this dip, it tastes super indulgent and perfect with the 365 corn tortillas (with no oil) baked with nutritional yeast.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/3046
Yum! That dip looks super tasty – I’ll have to put it on my to-make list!
Thank you-I crave this kale and was trying to figure out how to make it. I’m not sure how close yours is to the recipe. Perhaps it’s the same. BUT it is way better, in my opinion. Again, so many thanks!!!
Thank you Patty! I’m glad you like it.
Made this yesterday and it was AMAZING! Thanks for the recipe
I am 3 hours away from nearest WF and always look for this when I make the rare trip to one. Thanks for posting this fantastic recipe! I made it last night, tripled the batch because I love it so much.
So savory! I added some chopped asparagus (lightly broiled so still a little crunchy) and some halved cherry tomatoes to the kale salad- didn’t want to add anything that would detract from the dressing!
I will be sharing this at a potluck tomorrow, thanks again!
You are a genius! I just tried your recipe, and it’s the one
I absolutely loved eating this salad at Whole Foods. I made a trip there almost everyday just for this salad, and now I can make it myself and share with friends.
Many thanks!
Hi Christina. I’m so glad that you like the recipe. It’s one of my favorites as well.
I will be trying the recipe for the Garlicky Kale! thanks for sharing how to make it palatable too!!
I hope you love it!