Chopped Kale Salad with Edamame, Carrot and Avocado
A colorful chopped kale salad bursting with Asian flavors, including ginger, cilantro, Thai basil and soy. This salad is vegan and gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Hello from sunny San Diego! I’ve been soaking up sunshine on the beach and clinking drinks with a good friend over the past few days. Maybe a little too much of each. For once, I’m looking forward to returning to my regular routine. Long walks with Cookie and big green salads like this one sound mighty appealing at the moment.
Before I skipped town, P.F. Chang’s challenged me to create an original recipe containing a few of their summer seasonal ingredients. Avocado, pineapple, quinoa, lime, red bell pepper, Thai basil? Challenge accepted! I really love creating recipes around special ingredients; constraints seem to inspire creativity. Please let me know if you have any recipe requests.
For this challenge, I ended up with an Asian-inspired kale salad tossed in a homemade tamari-ginger vinaigrette. It’s loaded with crisp carrots, bell pepper and snap peas, and balanced with creamy avocado and edamame. The kale salad recipes on this blog are among my favorites, but this one might just be tops.
I only wish I had one of these detoxifying kale salads waiting for me at home. Cookie and I walk past a P.F. Chang’s every evening, so we might sample their fresh summer menu while my fridge is empty.
Chopped Kale Salad with Edamame, Carrot and Avocado
A colorful chopped kale salad bursting with Asian flavors, including ginger, cilantro, Thai basil and soy. This salad is vegan and gluten free, so it would make a great potluck dish. Recipe yields 4 medium salads.
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 bunch kale (preferably lacinato/Tuscan/dinosaur kale but regular curly kale works, too)
- Fine salt
- 1 cup chopped snow peas (slice off tough ends first)
- 1 large carrot, peeled and ribboned with a vegetable peeler
- 1 small red bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
- 1 heaping cup organic edamame (if using frozen edamame, defrost by tossing into a pot of boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes)
- 1 avocado, pitted and sliced into small chunks
- 1 large shallot, finely sliced
- Handful of cilantro, chopped
- Handful of Thai basil (or regular basil), chopped
Tamari-Ginger Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
- 1 tablespoon low-sodium tamari (or other low-sodium soy sauce*)
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- 3 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
Instructions
- Use a chef’s knife to remove the tough ribs from the kale, then discard them. Chop the kale leaves into small, bite-sized pieces and transfer them to a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the kale with a dash of sea salt and use your hands to massage the kale by scrunching up the leaves in your hands and releasing until the kale is a darker green and fragrant. Toss the remaining salad dressing ingredients with the kale.
- To make the vinaigrette, whisk together all the ingredients until emulsified. Toss the dressing with the salad and serve. Leftovers will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
*Make it gluten free: Tamari is a gluten-free Japanese soy sauce that has a flavor I love and is readily available at stores. If you want your salad to be gluten-free, be sure to pick a gluten-free soy sauce.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by P.F. Chang’s. All thoughts are my own, always. Thank you for being supportive of the sponsors that help me serve up more recipes.
Love, love, love all the colours in this salad Kate!! And that dressing looks awesome too!
Amazing blend of flavors and the snow peas add the perfect crunch.
Thank you, Joy!
I love everything about this salad. Great flavors!
mmmm..all look super delicious!!!
this looks yummy! definitely try it tonight.
Thanks so much for your wonderful recipes.
Looks amazing and so pretty – great ingredients, and the Asian flavors make it even better!
So much yummyness and color! I love chopped salad. You can never go wrong with delicious flavors :)
San Diego?! Lucky girl, enjoy! Such a vibrant salad, I love the Thai basil!
I’m loving edamame this summer; thanks for the recipe!
I love your kale salads. Can’t wait to try this one!
Cannot wait to make this. It looks so good and fresh and just awesome!
So colorful and delicious! I really not for edamame but it overall I’m sure it is yummy!
Asian flavours, kale and avocado are always delicious (although I’ve never had them all together) and edamame are especially doing it for me right now, so I know I’d love this salad :)
Oh.my.goodness… this looks AMAZING!! I have a kale salad going up on my blog tomorrow morning, but I love your Asian twist! Especially that ginger tamari dressing…. I think this is going to be on my weekend menu for sure!
Yummer! i know how it is, starting to crave anything GREEN after I’ve been splurging for a couple days. This salad looks just perfect! :)
If this beauty is for detoxification purposes then I say, slip me a few free radicals. Looks incredibly delicious, and good for you.
I have been on the lookout for a new kale recipe. It seems that our garden is the perfect place for kale and that means that I have so much that I don’t even know what to do with it anymore. I am going to test out this salad. It looks so fresh and lovely!
This sounds awesome. After a vacation, this is definitely the kind of light recipe I want to return to. Love the edamame in it!
Yummy, this looks really delicious – a symphony of tasty, healthy colour! :)
I love the vacation – real life balance. It’s so much fun to indulge on vacation and then fully enjoy the full return to home and healthier routines. Have a wonderful trip, Kate!
I always feel like I do better with creating recipes when I have constraints as well. So weird.
Anyways this salad! Gorgeous! And totally what I want in my belly. Like…now.
1: I love that glass salad bowl! 2- What a great combination of colors! Hope you’re having a blast in San Diego :)
This salad looks so bright and tasty. This is the kind of salad my wife digs. And I bet I can make my son eat this too.
I love kale-based salads; they’re so good for a pack-up lunch for a picnic, or a beach day. I always find that the dressing never wilts the leaves too much, which is awesome. Great dressing recipe too!
This salad is a lot of work, but it is worth it. The dressing is delicious! This is a keeper.
Thank you, Tracy! I’m so glad you found it to be worth the effort. I think that you could skip a couple add-ins (peas, red peppers) next time and it would still be very good.
Wow, this salad looks delicious! Bookmarking to make ASAP! Love love love your blog, it’s so wonderful.
Sounds tasty Kate! Kale has some amazing health benefits and avocado is great for the skin, will try this recipe out thanks very much for sharing :O)
This salad is amazing! I travel a fair bit and made it three times in one week – each time for a very appreciative family member! I am not vegetarian, so added shrimp to it (at my coworkers suggestion) as well as cashews! It’s a superb salad and i’m so glad you introduced me to it!!!!!
All of your kale salads are great, but this one is particularly calling my name right now! It looks absolutely delicious.
I love edamame, but kale in a salad is something I still need to master and love. I will definitely try this recipe. Thanks!
This salad was enormously popular even with my picky teenage sister who shuns greens. I love the edamame for the protein and the carrot ribbons for their festive colour. The dressing is delicious too, though I added quite a lot more ginger and lime than it calls for. I always chop up the veggies ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until serving time, when I add the dressing & avocado. It makes the prep a little easier. Thanks for a great recipe!
one quick note and im not sure if its been mentioned before but regular soy sauce is not gluten free. i only know this because my BF cant have gluten, its something i never would have thought of previously. if youre going to take this to a pot luck and say its gluten free please be sure to use gluten free soy sauce. that gluten is a sneaky devil. hiding in all sorts of unexpected places. cant wait to make this tonight! thanks for the recipe!!
Great point, Pren. Thanks for sharing! I try to note these things the best I can, but they’re easy to gloss over.
oh i see you had that as a note at the bottom! sorry :0)
I was looking for a great asian kale salad recipe and this looks perfect! Making this for dinner tomorrow night. Thanks so much!
Hope you loved the salad, Rachel!
Oh my goodness this looks so delicious! Just a bowl full of color :)
I can’t stand kale. I use it for juicing but i don’t like the taste of it. I had some dinosaur kale left over and made this salad and it was AWESEOME!!!. WOW, I can’t believe it. I ate my entire serving. I served it with some Samosas from Whole Foods and it really made a great meal for my family. Thanks for posting this. I am going to look around and sample some of your other recipes.
Joseph, so glad to hear that you’re a kale convert! I have several other kale salads that you might love. Thanks for commenting!
I just finished making this salad, it is amazingly delicious!
This salad is awesome!!! We paired it with fresh baked cod and it was a delightful combination. It was my first time trying kale, I will definitely be making this salad again soon.
Lori, thank you! So glad you enjoyed your first kale experience. :)
I absolutely love this salad! The dressing is unique and flavourful. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I intend on making it again this week.
Awesome, glad to hear it! Thanks, Erin.
Would substituting Sugar Snap for Snow Peas change the character or the crunch factor?
Sincere. Thanks
Hi John, I think the difference between the two would be pretty insignificant. Either one are great options.
Thanks. You rock.
Amazing! And so tasty! Thanks for the great recipe :)
Thanks, Courtney! Happy to hear it!
Wow I LOVED this salad, I mixed it with cooked brown rice and it was just delicious. The dressing is awsome. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome! Thanks, Lisa. I bet it’s terrific with rice.
I LOVE this salad, and virtually lived off of it for several months last summer when you first posted the recipe. I’ve re-found it again this summer and it’s just as good as the first time. I like to add chopped mango and cashews to the mix, and if I make it for dinner, I add prawns too. Fantastic every which way!
Woohoo! Thanks, Kate! Now I want to try your mango cashew version!
Wow! When kale salad is the item I want seconds of, you know it’s GOOD. Thanks you much for sharing.
Yay!!! Thanks, Joanne!
Just had to thank you for the FANTASTIC recipe. I’ve tried four separate kale salad recipes in the past few months and this is by FAR my fav.
Now, if I can just get my (processed-food-loving) 14 yr old son to agree…
Hooray! Thanks, Vicki! If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t eat kale at 14, either! :)
I just made this salad this evening. It totally changed how I approach salad. I always wanted to do this but didn’t know how to prep the kale. I followed your simple directions and viola! I added basil to the dressing b/c of no cilantro and it was still wonderful. I am a busy teacher and usually tired after work but I had such a fun, relaxing time creating this. It didn’t hurt that I had project runway on while I ripped up the kale… Anyway, thank you!
Thank you, J! Delighted to hear that you enjoyed this salad so much. I have quite a few other kale salads you might enjoy over here: https://14.canadaremotejob.infinityfreeapp.com/2014/12-favorite-kale-salads/
Another phenomenal salad. Loved all the colors and flavors, especially the dressing. My husband did say there was a LOT of chopping involved, but then he was hungry at the time. Thanks for another great recipe!
Just love all of your recipes! Eating more veggies has never looked this good. Thank you for the inspiration!
Delicious recipe! A weekly staple at my house. I add 1/2 Tbs of Sesame Oil for a little extra flavor in the dressing.
So awesome! Thanks, Peter.
This looks delicious and the photos are amazing. One quick suggestion, though: in most Asian cultures, it is considered extremely rude/is a major faux pas to have chopsticks sticking out of the bowl/food. (It would only be done in funerary ceremonies and as such is considered a symbol of death). This is why one would usually see chopsticks either to the side of a dish or laying across the top of a bowl, never sticking out of the food as you have portrayed them in the photos. (Different Asian cultures have different chopstick- and food-customs, but this is pretty much a universally shared taboo.) Since you are framing this as an “Asian” salad, I thought you might want to know this, especially for any future photo shoots.
The recipe sounds great though, and I look forward to trying it out.
Hi DK, thank you for letting me know. Someone else informed me of that a while ago and I’ve been sure not to make that mistake again! I’d retake these if I could just find the time!