This Kale and Whole Grain Salad is so hearty and filling, with kale, whole grain spelt, dried cranberries and walnuts!  It makes the perfect all in one side dish!

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Kale and Whole Grains Salad

Raise your hand if you have vowed to eat healthier in the new year?   Yeah, me too.  I am following my version of the Mediterranean diet.  Basically half of my meal is fruits and veggies, a fourth is whole grains, and a fourth is a protein of some sort.  Oh, and lots of olive oil and small amounts of healthy nuts.

So far, I've been enjoying this Arugula Salad with Pears and Prosciutto and this Broccoli Quinoa Salad (which contains a basic formula for making a grain salad.)

It's not difficult, but when I find a multi-tasker, like this Kale and Spelt Salad, it makes me very happy!  I found it in The Vegetable Butcher.  It has dark leafy greens, whole grain spelt, dried cranberries, and toasted walnuts!

Whole Grains

Besides all the goodness packed into this one salad, it also lasts for days!  We had it for 4 days in a row.  The first day with rotisserie chicken legs, the next two days - I added shredded rotisserie chicken breasts to the salad, and on the fourth day, we had the last of it with a sandwich.  It was as good on the fourth day as it was on the first making it perfect for healthy make ahead!

I actually cooked my spelt in the Instant Pot, because I do everything in my Instant Pot.  But since this is not really an Instant Pot recipe, I left the original instructions.  I'll do a post on grains in the Instant Pot later.

This recipe uses spelt, but you could use your favorite whole grains.  I think it would also be delicious with wheat berries or quinoa.

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5 from 46 votes

Kale and Spelt Salad

Such a healthy and delicious salad!  Filled with all things good for you, Kale, spelt, dried cranberries, and walnuts.

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 363kcal

Ingredients

• 1 cup spelt berries picked through and rinsed
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup toasted walnuts coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup red onion finely diced
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme chopped
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 12 ounces kale wash, stems removed and torn into 2 inch pieces
• 2 ounces feta crumbled

Lemon Dressing

• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

• Bring to boil a large pot of lightly salted water.  Add the spelt berries and cook them partially covered for 50-60 minutes or until they are tender.  Drain and spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet to cool. 
• To make the dressing, combine the lemon juice, salt and maple syrup in a small bowl.  Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking as you do.  
• In a large bowl, combine the spelt, cranberries, walnuts, onion, thyme, ¼ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.  Drizzle with half of the dressing and toss to combine.  Add the kale and more of dressing to taste.  Toss until well combined and the kale is evenly coated with dressing.  Top with feta to serve. 

Nutrition

Calories: 363kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 227mg | Potassium: 451mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 5720IU | Vitamin C: 72.5mg | Calcium: 153mg | Iron: 2.6mg

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Update Notes: This was originally published in 2018 and has been updated for 2019.