Strawberry Kale Salad with Avocado and Bacon

This Strawberry Kale Salad is a refreshing mix of kale, strawberries, almonds, avocado and bacon, all tossed in an orange poppy seed dressing.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, Canadian

Diet Gluten Free

Prep Time 25

Total Time 25

Servings side salads

Calories 313kcal

Make the dressing: Add the clementine slices, oil, honey, vinegar and salt to a blender and blend on high until smooth. Stir in the poppy seeds.
Prepare the kale: Add the kale to a large bowl with a sprinkle of salt and use your fingertips to massage the kale until it softens and starts to shrink in size.
Assemble the salad: Top the kale with the strawberries, bacon, almonds, red onion and avocado. Toss with your desired amount of dressing and serve.

Avoid baby kale. While curly kale or tuscan kale work in this recipe, I would avoid using baby kale as the leaves are small and tender. They don't require massaging and may not hold up to all of the toppings and salad dressing.
Type of citrus. If you can't find clementines for the dressing, you can also use tangerines or satsumas. For a slightly less sweet dressing, you can also use a naval orange.
A blender is necessary.You'll need to use a blender for the dressing to achieve a smooth texture with whole orange slices. It will also quickly emulsify the ingredients into a creamy dressing. Remember to leave out the poppy seeds and stir them in at the end.
Extra dressing. The dressing recipe makes a lot so you may have some leftover. Just use as much as you need and save the rest for another salad.