Salmon and Kale Caesar Salad with diced avocado, sunflower seeds and shaved parmesan. Canned salmon makes this salad protein packed & calcium rich while also being easy and affordable! Gluten Free + Low Carb + Paleo + Whole30 adaptable
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My love for oily, salad vinaigrettes runs deep and it runs strong. But when it comes to the creamy, fullness of the Caesar salad dressing there’s not much else that compares.
It’s zesty, garlicky, savoury and creamy. I said creamy twice because it’s that important.
Sometimes you just need to douse your greens in a little Caesar goodness and toss around some extra fun in the form of diced avocados, cooked salmon, and crunchy nuts for good measure.
How to Make: Salmon Kale Caesar Salad
For as packed and powerful as this salad is, it’s fast, easy and filling. You can make it it easily in under 15 minutes – even less if you make the dressing in advance.
The salad itself is simple enough. It’s made up of:
- chopped kale – I used Tuscan/Lacinato but you can use whatever type of kale you’d like
- diced avocado – loading up on those healthy fats
- canned salmon – much easier and more affordable than fresh salmon with all the same benefits
- handful of sunflower seeds – because no salad is complete without some sort of crunch factor
Notes About the Dressing
If there is one thing to know about making caesar dressing at home is that it’s suuuuper easy. Just combine all your ingredients in a jar and blend for all of about 15 seconds. Immersion blenders are perfect for this type of thing, but if you don’t own one no worries because your blender will work just as well.
If you’re worried about raw eggs and food borne illness, use pasteurised eggs for this recipe. Pasteurising eggs is the process of safely heating eggs inside their shells to a temperature that destroys bacteria without actually cooking the egg.
Traditionally, Caesar salad is made with anchovies and is responsible for the salty/savoury umami flavour in Caesar salad dressing. Since it’s not necessarily something that we all keep in our kitchen on a regular basis feel free to leave it out if you need. If you happen to have a little miso paste on hand you can always swap out the anchovy paste for miso to achieve a similar effect.
And that’s it!
Kale salads tend to stay fresher for longer but when you start adding things like avocado those tend to go sad and brown as soon as you turn around. If you’re looking to use this kale caesar salad as a meal prep recipe I’d recommend just prepping everything separately and mixing it altogether closer to the time you’ll be eating it.
Enjoy!
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Salmon and Kale Caesar Salad
Salmon and Kale Caesar Salad with diced avocado, sunflower seeds and shaved parmesan. Canned salmon makes this salad protein packed & calcium rich while also being easy and affordable! Gluten Free + Low Carb
Ingredients
- 5 cups kale, chopped into bite sized pieces & stems removed, I used Tuscan/Lacinato but you can use whatever type of kale you'd like
- 1 tablespoon | 15 ml olive oil
- 1 haas avocado, diced
- 2 cans of 6 oz wild caught salmon, excess liquid drained
- 1/4 cup | 35 grams sunflower seeds, hulled
- 1/4 cup | 20 grams shaved parmesan, leave out for paleo/whole30
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
Dressing
- 1 egg yolk, pasteurised
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons | 30 ml lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon dijion mustard
- 1 teaspoon anchovy paste optional, can sub with miso paste or leave out altogether
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup | 240 ml olive oil
Instructions
Dressing
- Add all of you ingredients to a large mason jar except for the oil. Put your immersion blender all the way in the jar and blend everything together until it starts to emulsify.
- Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture. Blend and slowly pull up the blender as you go. The dressing will thicken and become creamy after a minute or two. Taste and adjust seasoning as you like. Set aside while you prep the salad.
Salad
- Add the kale to a large salad bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the kale leaves and scrunch handfuls of kale to massage. Keep scrunching until the leaves darken and soften about 1 minute.
- Add the the remaining salad ingredients to the kale and gently toss. Before adding the canned salmon remove the tops and then mash around the salmon with a fork to break it all up.
- Add about half the dressing to the salad and toss to coat everything in dressing.
Notes
Traditionally, Caesar salad is made with anchovies and is responsible for the salty/savoury umami flavour in Caesar salad dressing. Since it's not necessarily something that we all keep in our kitchen on a regular basis feel free to leave it out if you need. If you happen to have a little miso paste on hand you can always swap out the anchovy paste for miso to achieve a similar effect.
Calories for the salad if you only use half of the caesar salad dressing.
Keeps well in the fridge for up to 2 days
Nutrition Information
Serving Size:
serving Calories: 577Saturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 101mgSodium: 526mgCarbohydrates: 9gFiber: 4gProtein: 24gMore Salmon Recipes You Might Enjoy
Linda says
I love your blog and recipes! Thanks for making our meals so much healthier and really delicious.
Sarah says
Thanks Linda!