Kale Detox Salad

This kale detox salad is super nourishing without skimping on flavor. You’ll love the combo of crunchy raw vegetables, marinated mushrooms and roasted Brussels sprouts tossed in a light balsamic dressing.

Have you ever felt like you needed to detox? I usually feel like I need one most after the holidays, a vacation or a weekend that’s full of indulgences.

Feeling this way makes total sense because alcohol, high sugar foods and processed junk can slow down or hinder our digestive systems. Of course our bodies have their own natural detoxification system but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to get back to the basics and help your body with the cleansing process.

This kale detox salad is a great place to start because it’s packed full of delicious foods that contains vital nutrients and are perfect for cleansing. It has at least seven of the 14 liver cleanse foods listed in this article.

And it’s tasty too! The roasted Brussels sprouts and marinated mushrooms add dynamic flavors as well as texture variety so the salad is really satisfying and can easily be enjoyed as a meal.

PS – You don’t have to be in need of a detox to enjoy this salad! It’s a great salad to add to your everyday routine.

Ingredients Needed:

• Lacinato kale – I prefer Lacinato kale (also known as Dinosaur kale, Black kale or Tuscan Kale) for this salad, but you can use curly kale if that’s all you can find.
• mixed greens or spinach – or additional kale
• red cabbage – green cabbage works too
• carrots
• black beans 
• portobello caps
• bell pepper – I prefer red, but any color works.
• Brussels sprouts
• raw sunflower seeds – I love the nuttiness and crunch that the raw sunflower seeds add to this salad, but I bet any seed or nut would be delicious.
• avocado
• balsamic vinegar
• olive or avocado oil
• lemon juice
• maple syrup
• garlic
• dijon mustard
• sea salt
• ground pepper

What to Pair With This Salad

This salad would be a great vegetarian side option for a weeknight meal or you could double the recipe and bring it to a cookout or potluck. You could also turn this salad into a meal-sized salad by adding some protein. It’d be delicious topped with chickpeas, tempeh, tofu or my apple cider vinegar chicken.

Storage and Make Ahead Tips

This salad will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Some of the ingredients can be prepped ahead of time – like the dressing and marinating the mushrooms and roasting the sprouts. These things do take a bit of time so it might be easier to do them the day/night before and keep the veggies and dressing in the fridge until you’re ready to prepare the salad. That’s what I did and it worked out great because the veggies were already cool. That said, adding warm Brussels sprouts to the salad is delicious as well!

More Kale Salads:

• Kale Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash
• Mexican Street Corn Kale Salad
• Garlicky Kale Salad
• Quinoa Salad with Kale
• Massaged Kale Salad (with Avocado)
• Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad

If you make this kale detox salad be sure to leave a comment and star rating below letting us know how it turned out. Your feedback is so helpful for the EBF team and our readers!

Kale Detox Salad

5 from 7 votes

This kale detox salad is loaded with crunchy raw vegetables, marinated mushrooms and roasted Brussels sprouts tossed in an easy balsamic dressing. 

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Prep Time 1 hour

Servings 3

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of lacinato kale, de-stemmed and chopped into bite size pieces
• 4 ounces baby mixed greens, spinach or 4 additional ounces of kale
• 1 cup chopped red cabbage
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler or spiralized
• 1 cup cooked black beans
• 4 small, or 2 large portobello caps, sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped or sliced
• 1 bunch Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and quartered
• 2-3 teaspoons olive or avocado oil
• 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1 avocado, sliced

Balsamic Dressing:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions

 

• Marinate the mushrooms: simply whisk together all ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and place mushrooms into the bowl to marinate. Stir occasionally (or shake if you're using a sealable container) to make sure all the pieces are getting coated in the dressing. The mushrooms should marinate anywhere from 1 hour to overnight.
• Roast the sprouts: Preheat oven to 375°. Toss chopped brussels sprouts in 2-3 teaspoons of oil and sprinkle on a little salt and pepper. Add to a baking sheet and roast for 40-45 minutes (tossing occasionally) or until brussels sprouts are tender and brown.
• After marinating the mushrooms, add the mushrooms and remaining dressing into a large bowl with all the rest of the salad ingredients.
• Mix everything together. A large tupperware container works great for this because you can put the lid on it and shake all the ingredients to mix them up, but if you don't have one, stirring everything together in a big salad bowl with a spoon will work.
• You can let the salad marinate a bit more before serving (this will help to soften the kale a bit) or you can serve immediately. To serve, place salad portion on a plate or bowl and top with an extra slice of avocado and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds.
• Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. You should be able to get at least 2-3 large salads out of it.

Nutrition

Calories: 484kcal Carbohydrates: 55g Protein: 16g Fat: 26g Saturated Fat: 4g Sodium: 464mg Fiber: 18g Sugar: 21g

Author: Brittany Mullins

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