Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon
Enjoy this delicious Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon recipe today for brunch, lunch, or dinner! The secret is how to massage kale, to make the leaves softened, before adding the soft boiled eggs, bacon, avocado, onions, and fresh strawberries. Serve with your favorite bread!
In the spirit of simple and beautiful, I think of two things: Seasonal food, like this Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon recipe, and our lovely daughter, Abby, who’s headed to college in a few short months.
Today I want to not only share with you a story about our daughter–the joys and benefits of planning, shopping, cooking, and consuming fresh, delicious food together–but also why we’ve made the kitchen the most important room in the house.
Kale salad
First of all, let’s start with good food. Buying and preparing fresh food can make even the simplest meal absolutely delicious. Some of you may know that we have a garden, and grow much of our produce in early spring and summer months. My husband is more the gardener than I am; I love to cook with the bounty. What delights us as parents is to see our kids head to the garden and chop off an entire head of lettuce from the stock, or gently pull kale leaves from the plant.
How to massage kale
For a few minutes, with your hands, start to tear the leaves apart and begin massaging the kale (similar to kneading bread dough). Continue this process for about 2-5 minutes or until the leaves are softened. The leaves will turn a bright green color.
But not everything comes from the garden. One of my favorite delights, as a mama this past year, has been that my daughter has volunteered to do much of my grocery shopping. It not only helps me out, but I feel it has really helped her learn the cost of groceries, how to find the best deal, how to shop for the freshest, and how it all comes back around as we put the ingredients into recipes!
I know, it’s made a few of my friends jealous, but it’s just something that Abby enjoys, and I take her up on it! She’s a fabulous cook, at age 18, and I love how healthy she is (saying no-no to processed foods).
Cook together.
As I mentioned, the kitchen in our home is the most important room in the house, as our life largely revolves around food. We’re like any normal family, eating three meals a day, plus snacks! Sometimes we cook together, depending on our schedules, and sometimes we don’t. We’re pretty good about setting aside our phones and technology, and getting the job done, with the final result a meal together as a family. Ahhhh … it’s what this mama loves!
Part of teaching our kids about healthy eating has been to put our kitchen to use! A few years back, when we did our kitchen remodel, we decided we would entertain a lot, and cook every meal possible in this great space, which we feel so fortunate to have. It’s not a gigantic kitchen, but it’s a functioning kitchen and easy for our entire family to enjoy! It’s where we focus on planning our meals, and eventually stand next to each other prepping ingredients for dishes to be used throughout the week.
Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon
Prep work takes the pressure off in the immediate lead up to dinner, eventually helping to get a quick, healthy evening meal on the table. Like getting the kale ready for this yummy Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon recipe!
So, back to seasonal cooking. We’ve learned to enjoy our kitchen, using it to its fullest capacity. Abby recently whipped up this kale salad recipe, which I’m sharing today.
Remember that cooking doesn’t have to be fancy and gourmet; just keep it simple, fun, healthy, and remember it never has to be perfect.
Now that my kids are older, I look back on times when I was stressed in the kitchen, and no one remembers. The good memories stay, and I know for our family, we have a lot of them–so many around food!
Get the Recipe:
Strawberry Avocado Kale Salad with Bacon
Ingredients
- Lacinado Kale separated from the stem, washed and torn for salad
- Hard cooked eggs
- Fresh strawberries, sliced
- Avocado, sliced
- Red onion, finely chopped
- Cook bacon, crumbled
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup preserves, I used peach, but strawberry or raspberry is delicious, too
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 cup canola or olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, bring the balsamic vinegar, shallots, and sugar to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring frequently, until liquid is reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Add the preserves and cook 1 more minute.
- Transfer the mixture to a blender; add the oil and red wine vinegar and puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Chill.
- Meanwhile, cook the eggs and bacon. Cool.
- Prepare the kale and toss well with dressing, refrigerating for 30 minutes to develop the flavor and to tenderize the greens.
- In a large salad bowl, place the softened kale and add the sliced hard cooked eggs, sliced strawberries and avocado, chopped red onion, and crumbled bacon. Toss and serve. If desired, drizzle the salad with more dressing. You can also plate the salad and then drizzle the dressing on to individiual servings.
More kale recipes: Chicken Kale Salad Recipe [RE], Greek Yogurt Spinach Kale Dip [RE], Baked Kale Chips Recipe [A Spicy Perspective], and Kale and Feta Breakfast Casserole [Kalyn’s Kitchen].
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
This salad sounds delicious! I am always a fan of recipes with kale! Thanks for the shout-out for my recipe too.
I love your kitchen! It’s open, bright and beautiful. It sounds like you have just a lovely family and that time together is so important. This salad is delicious sounding as well, love the combination of flavors.
Teaching our kids healthy ways in the kitchen is so important! This salad looks amazing, the addition of bacon is almost too much for me to handle!
This salad looks divine. I might never tire of salads if they were all like this!
What a beautiful daughter. How wonderful that she enjoys grocery shopping. I’m sure it’s going to be hard for you when she leaves. This looks like a fabulous salad.
This is a gorgeous salad!
Loved this post, seeing your kitchen, hearing about your beautiful family…and that gorgeous salad! Are those pussy willows on your counter? A true sign of spring. (Still waiting here.)
Great post. Salad looks so yummy!!!! I love when there are moments for my girls to get involved in the cooking/shopping/planning process…it doesn’t happen often because of their schedules, but they have a good foundation. We homeschooled too and so they would usually go shopping with me, until they got older…lol…Sometimes I would give them a portion of the list and send them off to find those items. My oldest is getting ready to venture out on her own, getting married this winter and we were just talking the other day about her going with me more shopping to better know how to find the best deals, etc..
Always love a fresh new salad to try. It’s just my husband and I now and we both work. So, our meals at home include a quick breakfast of either boiled egg, yogurt and fruit, English muffin sandwich, etc. and evening meals. We both love to cook, so we usually eat at home every night during the week. We do plan ahead according to weather (my husband loves to grill), church and family activities, and sales at the grocery store. Its easier to plan and cook and also invite when your spouse loves to cook as well. He is much better to go with the flow than I am too, which is nice. We often have our adult kids drop by and grandbaby unexpectedly for a meal. So, meals are a big part of our lives and our family too. We really enjoy being together and sharing a meal and our lives! (Your daughter is beautiful and what a blessing to have her help you in the kitchen!)
I’m loving this campaign and the posts associated with it. Getting the family involved in meal planning makes dinnertime so much easier and more enjoyable.
And this salad!!! I’m speechless. Total perfection. Love the preserves on the dressing, genius!
We always eat together. As homeschoolers we have more opportunity to be together. My boys love to help out in the kitchen and are usually with me during grocery shopping.
In our house in the city we had blueberries, raspberries and marionberries. I rarely ate one because the boys would be eating them all day long. I thought it was great though….healthy snacking.
On our farm we have a ton of marionberries, boysenberries and blackberries so there are enough to go around. Eventually we will add the other berries. But yes, our boys are out there in the garden picking cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. and just popping them in their mouths. Again, healthy snacking.
You have a lovely family. Good job!
Thank you, Karen. You’re making me hungry mentioning all of that fresh food — great healthy snacks!
I love your kitchen layout! There’s something about sitting at a bar type table that makes people want to pitch in and share more, whether it’s meal prep or conversation. Gorgeous salad, too!
Aww, thank you Anne-Marie. We love our kitchen as well, most used room in the house! :)
After my little brother started 1st grade, my mother (who had just turned 45) went back to school to get a degree in education. (After raising 11 children, she felt a calling to teach school!) She was working on her final degree and asked all of us “children” to participate in a survey that she was incorporating into her final paper. The survey was centered around growing up in a big family. Almost everyone of us listed meals, particularly Sunday lunch after church, as our favorite times. Most of us still live in the Atlanta area so, as many of us that can, still get together for meals at least once a month. No matter how small the kitchen is, that’s where everybody is going to be! I love your blog!
Thank you, Clare. That’s a beautiful story! Thank you for sharing!