Garlicky Kale Salad (Inspired by Whole Foods)
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Published Aug 17, 2020, Updated Oct 12, 2023
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This garlicky kale salad is the best kale salad ever and so easy to whip up. The zesty tahini dressing is absolutely delicious and makes this recipe taste JUST like the Whole Foods garlicky kale.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m semi-addicted to the Whole Foods salad bar. Granted, my addiction may have subsided a tad since I haven’t been in the store since March, but I still vividly remember my favorites!
There are so that I often end up filling my container to the brim with different veggies, beans and salads. Sure, I end up paying an arm and a leg for my meal, but it’s totally worth it. 😉
Whole Foods Salad Bar Recreations
Of course, I have some favorite items on the bar — one being the Cracklin’ Cauliflower, which I’ve already recreated and the second is the garlicky kale salad. After reading the ingredient list for the garlicky kale salad at the bar (Yep, 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 I have to say, it’s pretty spot on!
Ingredients Needed for This Kale Salad
- kale
- tahini
- apple cider vinegar (or water)
- lemon juice
- Bragg’s liquid aminos (tamari or soy sauce will work)
- nutritional yeast
- garlic
Zesty Tahini Dressing
The dressing I use for the garlicky kale salad is my zesty tahini dressing. It’s made with tahini, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, tamari, nutritional yeast and garlic. I love the zesty flavor from the garlic and apple cider vinegar and the fact that it’s oil-free.
It’s definitely one of my favorite dressings ever! You’ll love it on this kale salad, but you’ll likely want to use it for other salads too. I highly recommend making a double batch!
How to Serve this Kale Salad
This garlicky kale salad is a great side option but I also love it as a base to other salads! My trick is using this as a base and then layering leftovers on top… you can’t go wrong with leftover veggies + protein on this tasty salad base!
More Kale Salad Recipes to Try
- Kale Caesar Salad
- Mexican Street Corn Kale Salad
- Massaged Kale Salad
- Kale & Cabbage Pad Thai Salad
- Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad
- Butternut Squash Kale Salad
- Sweet Potato Kale and Quinoa Salad
- Detox Salad
- Kale Salad with Peanut Dressing
- Easy Kale Salad
More Healthy Salad Dressing Ideas
- Mexican Goddess Dressing
- Maple Dressing
- Avocado Ranch Dressing
- Lemon Vinaigrette
- Turmeric Tahini Dressing
- Avocado Caesar Dressing
- Chili Almond Dressing
- Zesty Tahini
- Healthy Caesar Dressing
Be sure to check out my healthy salad dressings as well as my salad recipes.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below.
Garlicky Kale Salad
Ingredients
- 1 bunch raw kale, washed, de-stemmed and dried
- 2 Tablespoons tahini
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, or water
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons Bragg’s liquid aminos, tamari or soy sauce will work
- 4 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons 1-2 cloves minced garlic
Instructions
- Break or cut kale into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl.
- Puree all ingredients except kale 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.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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! : )
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. 🙂
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!!
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.
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 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?
they steam then blanche their kale before
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!
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!
No joke-I’d live at WF if I could!