Roasted Kale, Squash, and Apple Salad

A perfect winter meal

Happy February! (And welcome, new subscribers!) It’s been a rough couple of weeks for all of California, and my household was also walloped by the current cold and flu season. As a result, I’m behind on our regularly programmed interviews with home cooks from across the state. But don’t worry, I have some great ones coming up, including a talk with a TV writer and producer (who is sharing both a cheddar-infused sourdough bread recipe and a lentil soup recipe), an Armenian-American farmer, and the founder of the non-profit No Immigrants No Spice (who also introduced me to our previous interviewees Candice Nguyen and Jelmer Tiete.)

In the meantime, here’s a recipe for another delicious, wintery salad that I’ve been making on repeat. I hope you enjoy it!

Roasted Kale, Squash, and Apple Salad

This time of year, there are only three things that are still growing happily in my little backyard garden: Chinese celery, collard greens, and, of course kale. We plant lacinato kale (the smooth, bumpy kind also known as cavolo nero or dinosaur kale), and it provides food all year long. We even have a random volunteer kale plant in the corner of my yard. We don’t really do anything to it, but it keeps going and going, no matter how much we pick from it. (Kale and collards are the Energizer Bunny vegetables of the Bay Area.)

While there are no shortage of kale and squash salad recipes out there, mine has one trick I haven’t seen anywhere else: the kale itself is roasted until it is crisp and crunchy. I have no idea where I got this idea—I’ve been making my kale this way for at least 15 years now—but the result is a wildly delicious salad that we never get tired of. The kale is great on its own, with just a garlic lemon dressing and some parmesan cheese, but I recently paired it with some of my other favorite winter salad ingredients, and the combination is my new favorite meal.

Feeds 2 as small entrees or 4 as a side

1 delicata squash
1 pink lady apple (or other sweet-tart apple)
½ purple onion
5-6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt (preferably Diamond Crystal)
Freshly ground pepper
2 bunches lacinato kale
Meyer Lemon and Garlic Dressing (below)
Wedge Parmesan
Candied pecans, roughly chopped (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out and discard the seeds and stringy membranes. Cut off the stem end root ends, and cut the squash halves crosswise into ½”-thick half moons. Put the squash on one half of a baking sheet. Drizzle it with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season it with a very large pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper. Toss the squash so the oil and seasoning coats the slices, then arrange them in one layer (still using only half of the baking sheet).

3. Core the apple and cut it into 1/3”-inch thick slices. Peel the onion and cut it crosswise into 1/3”-inch thick half moons. Put the apple and onion on the other half of the baking sheet. Drizzle them with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, season them with a very large pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper, and sprinkle the sugar over them. Toss the apple and onion so that the oil and seasoning coats the slices, and arrange them in as close to one layer as you can get (using the other half of the baking sheet).

4. Roast the squash, apple, and onion in the lower third of the oven, if the heat source is in the bottom, or the top third, if the heat source is in the top. After 20 minutes, use tongs to flip the apple and squash slices over; some should be slightly browned on the bottom.

5. Continue roasting the mixture until the onion and apples are very soft, 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let everything cool to room temperature.

6. While the the squash is cooling, remove the kale’s ribs* and cut the leaves into large pieces (about 2 to 3 inches long). Put the kale in a large mixing bowl, drizzle it with the remaining 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil (you’ll want enough to coat all the leaves), and season them with a very large pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper. Toss the kale to coat it with the oil and seasoning, then spread it out on a second sheet pan, arranging the pieces in as close to one layer as you can get.

7. Roast the kale in the middle of the oven until it has shrunken and collapsed against the bottom of the pan, about 15 minutes (maybe less, if your kale isn’t very hearty). Use tongs to fluff the kale up a bit, so it’s not all laying flat on the pan, then continue roasting until the kale is crisp all the way through but not burning, another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the heartiness of the kale.

8. Scrape the kale into a large bowl, and dress it with some of the lemon-garlic dressing (adjusting the amount to your taste). Use a microplane or the zesting side of a box grater to grate a big flurry of Parmesan onto the kale, and toss it in, so the kale is lightly coated with cheese.

9. Divide the kale onto plates (if you want to serve it individually), then top the kale with the roasted squash, apple, and onion. Spoon a little bit of the remaining dressing onto these ingredients, then sprinkle on the chopped pecans, if using. Finish the salad with a light dusting of Parmesan.

*To pull the ribs out of the kale leaves, hold onto the stem with one hand and pull the thumb and first two fingers of your other hand down the rib, in a zipper-like motion.

Meyer Lemon and Garlic Dressing

This is one of my every day, go-to salad dressings. It’s great on all kinds of greens, but I particularly like it on roasted kale. If you don’t have Meyer lemons, use can use regular lemon, but don’t use quite as much of the lemon juice (and add a small pinch of sugar, if you like).

2 large cloves garlic
½ teaspoon kosher salt (preferably Diamond Crystal)
¼ cup Meyer lemon juice
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Mince the garlic, then form it into a little pile, and sprinkle the salt on it. Use the side of the knife to scrape the garlic and salt against the cutting board, so that the knife crushes the garlic and the salt helps grate it into a relatively smooth paste. Put the garlic-salt paste in a resealable glass jar with the lemon juice and the olive oil and shake everything well just before using it.

From the Archive: Three-Cheese “Grown Up” Macaroni and Cheese

If you want something delicious, hearty, and creamy to go with your salad, how about the mac and cheese that Brian Fiscalini shared with us last year? The two together make a perfect wintery meal.

More California Recipes

If you’re enjoying spending time next to a warm stove or oven these days (like I am), you might want to try out Illyana Maisonet’s new recipe for sazon-encrusted steak or cookbook author Andrea Nguyen’s flourless almond cookies. (Andrea, who lives in Santa Cruz, also recently started a Substack newsletter, so you can now get her recipes sent straight to your inbox. She was also on a couple of recent episodes of the Splendid Table.)

Photos: Georgia Freedman