This easy kale and white bean salad is packed with good-for-you ingredientsis crave-worthy and can be made ahead of time. Thanks to the creamy tahini dressing, the salad is vegetarian, vegan and super filling.
I love this kale and white bean salad, a salad staple for us for years. It’s one of my favorites Cabbage recipesfor sure! The base is cabbage, which we massage with lemon juice and salt to become the base of a delicate, delicious salad. Then we add white beans, walnuts and my favorite tahini sauce.
For more delicious salads, see our white bean salad with prosciuttothis is seriously good! quinoa saladand ours cauliflower pea salad. Or, if you’re into white beans, you’ll love ours Easy White Bean Soup!
Main ingredients:
- Cabbage. Use your favorite variety of kale in this salad. Because kale is so abundantly green, sometimes it can be overwhelming when served raw. So I like to do three things: First, remove the ribs, which are quite tough.Second, rub it with a little lemon juice and salt, and third, chop it.
- White beans. I love kale with white beans and usually reach for cannellini beans, great northern beans or chickpeas.
- Walnut. We keep this salad plant-based and like to add nuts for extra sticking power. If you don’t have nuts, substitute other nuts or use seeds like pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.
- Tahini sauce. The tahini in this salad is amazing. I use my favorite creamy tahini sauce to dress up but you can use this tahini salad dressing. They are both easy to make and delicious Homemade tahini to make them, but your favorite store-bought jar works just as well.
- Lemon. You’ll use the lemon to massage the kale and squeeze it over the salad for an extra burst of fresh flavor.
How to make Kale and White Bean Salad
I start this salad the same way I start all my kale salads. Remove the leaves from the ribs/stems, then toss them in a bowl with a pinch of salt and lemon juice. When as you do, you’ll notice the leaves turn a deeper green and begin to feel softer and more tender.
Salt, acid, and massaging help break down kale (similar to cooking it.) By adding this step to your kale salad repertoire, you’ll transform hearty (and sometimes hard-to-digest) raw kale into tender, delicious salad greens.
Once the cabbage is done, it’s time to make the salad.Add the white beans and walnuts, then toss tahini sauce. Once the salad is ready, it should last quite a while in your fridge, making it a perfect make-ahead meal, at least a day, if not two or three.
This Kale and Bean Salad would go great alongside them garlic flat bread, homemade pitathis easy vegetable soupour chicken and vegetable soup.
Tahini Cabbage and White Bean Salad
This easy kale and bean salad is packed with good-for-you ingredients and can be made ahead of time. Because kale is so hearty, it can be hard to digest when served raw with lemon juice. Some of the structure of the cabbage is broken down by rubbing the salt and lemon into the leaves, making the cabbage a deeper green color and much more tender than if left raw.
For clothing, we use our favorite tahini sauce recipe. It is very simple to make.I love this too tahini salad dressingwhich is less creamy but still delicious.
Makes 4 large salads
You will need it
1 bunch of cabbage, about 7 cups of leaves
3 oz walnut halves, about 3/4 cup, lightly toasted
2 (15 oz) canned white beans, such as chickpeas or cannellini beans, about 3 cups cooked
1/2 cup homemade tahini sauce
Juice of half a lemon
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon slices, if desired
Directions:
1:Remove the leaves from the kale stems and chop or tear them. Wash the leaves under cold water, then dry or spin them.
2:Add the kale to a large bowl, then use your fingers to massage the leaves with 1/4 teaspoon salt and the juice of half a lemon.
3:If using canned beans, drain and rinse them. Add the beans, walnuts, and most of the tahini dressing to the cabbage. Toss well, then adjust with more dressing if the salad seems dry. we like to be generous with the sauce.
4:Top with freshly ground black pepper and serve with a few lemon wedges as a garnish.
Advice from Adam and Joan
- Nuts for frying. Add them to a dry pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and lightly browned. Watch the nuts, they can burn quickly.
- Boiled peas. canned beans are fine, but for homemade, here’s our recipe how to cook chickpeas.
- The nutrition facts below are estimates.
Nutrition per serving
Serving size
1/4 of the recipe
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Calories
462
/
Total fat
32 g
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Saturated fats
4 g
/
Cholesterol
0 mg
/
Sodium
523 mg
/
Carbohydrate
35 g
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Dietary fiber
11 g
/
Total sugars
4 g
/
Proteins
18 g
