Fruity Kale Salad with Chicken, Bacon, and Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

I've had a fear of raw kale salads ever since I heard about them. Okay, maybe not a fear, but I was definitely not interested in eating them. How could something so tough possibly be good in salad form? I love me some cooked kale, but the whole raw thing was not an idea I was goin' for. Then I found the method in the recipe below. It was a game changer.

The method I found involves sprinkling the kale with a little salt and massaging it until it becomes tender. Yes, massaging your kale. I thought this was just a trick to make me feel more of a bond with my kale and not want to throw it out even if it was horrible. But I was surprised! After lovingly beating up the kale for about five minutes I had a very different looking leaf. Darker for sure, more tender, and pleasant for consuming raw.

Isn't this beautiful? I love how throwing a bunch of wonderful produce together in a bowl is so delicious and healthy.

This is really more about the kale massaging than the actual recipe, however, I do know that this salad was great, and I highly recommend it. You could definitely skip anything you don't like or swap in some different nuts or fruit. I loved the combination of the kale with the sweet fruit and the salty bacon, chicken, and onions. It made for a nice balance of salty-sweet. 

The goodies don't look very prevalent in this picture but there were plenty of goodies. 

I don't generally serve salad as a main dish for dinner, but this one will definitely be back on our table. Marshall liked it, I liked it, and it's hard to beat health-wise....Maybe nixing the bacon would be beneficial concerning health, but when your dinner looks like the pictures above and below, I'm pretty sure a few bites of bacon won't be too harmful ; )

Fruity Kale Salad with Chicken, Bacon, and Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

Ingredients for salad:

6 cups kale, chopped and stems removed + 1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 lb. strawberries, quartered

1 apple, diced

2 - 4 strips of bacon

1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped 

1/4 of a red onion, sliced

1 small chicken breast, cubed, drizzled with lemon juice, and sprinkled with salt and pepper

Directions for salad:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Put all of the chopped kale into a large bowl and sprinkle on the salt. Massage the kale for a few minutes until it becomes dark green and tender. This step makes a huge difference for this salad. 

3. Bake the cubed chicken for about 25 minutes (this will vary a lot depending on the size of the chicken breast). 

4. Cook the bacon in a medium pan. Remove from the pan and strain on a paper towel. Leave approximately 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat in the pan and toast the walnuts for a few minutes. Remove the walnuts from the pan and saute the onions for a few minutes until tender.

5. Toss all ingredients together with the dressing and serve. I served this all at about room temperature. You can choose if you want the chicken/bacon warm, or the kale/fruit cold.

Ingredients for dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. honey
1 tsp. poppy seeds
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp, freshly ground black pepper

Directions for dressing:

Add all the ingredients to a glass jar with a lid. Shake well until combined.

Adapted from THIS recipe