A Delicious and Easy White Bean Kale Salad

Easy White Bean and Kale Salad

On Mondays, we close the flower shop and I work from home. The best thing about my home office? The lunch hour. ;) Taking a mid-day break to cook/make something really good for lunch is one of my favorite parts of the day. This week, I threw together an easy white bean and kale salad — inspired by this recipe from Minimalist Baker — with stuff I had in the pantry and fridge.

It was so good, I’m putting it in my weekly meal prep rotation. With a few make-ahead ingredients, I can quickly toss this salad together in a glass Pyrex container* for a delicious grab-and-go lunch.

Easy White Bean Kale Salad Ingredients

  • a couple handfuls of chopped kale, stems removed and discarded (I buy a big bag of chopped kale from Aldi each week for soups and salads)
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • fresh lemon
  • 1/2 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  • boiled egg
  • bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces
  • kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
  • dried red pepper flakes (if you like a little heat)
  • crispy fried onions*

Prep Ahead

I’m not big on meal planning, but I do love to prep a few easy shortcuts to have on hand for salads and grain bowls; a trick I picked up from Christina Chaey in a summer issue of Bon Appétit.

Eggs: Whenever I soft-boil eggs to top ramen, hearty veggie soups, or rice dishes for dinner, I add a few extra to the pot for my fridge stash. In my humble opinion, 8 minutes is the perfect amount of time to boil an egg; it fully cooks the white, and leaves the yolk just a bit soft and jammy (but not runny). I watch the timer like a hawk, and have a bowl of ice water on standby to plunge the eggs into to stop them from cooking further. Boiled eggs last a few days in the fridge, and are perfect additions to so many lunch recipes. Or, for a quick protein fix with a little salt and pepper when you’re hangry.

Bacon: Do yourself a favor and make your bacon in an air fryer. It’s easy, quick, and less mess; the fat drains into the bottom container and wipes right out, and if you have a dishwasher-safe model (I do*) cleanup is a breeze. Cooked bacon lasts 4-5 days in a shallow airtight container in the fridge. Roughly chop it just before you assemble your salad.

Easy white bean kale salad topped with sliced boiled egg and crispy onion in white ceramic bowl.

Instructions

Put the kale, white beans, and bacon into a Pyrex bowl, or similar storage container with a tight-fitting lid, and generously drizzle with EVOO. Quarter a fresh lemon and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover with the lid, and shake-shake-shake until all the kale and beans are coated. Transfer salad into a bowl, or keep in container if you’re taking it to-go.

Top with a sliced boiled egg, crispy fried onions*, and red pepper flakes.

For more recipes from the archives, click here!

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links denoted by a ‘*’; I may earn a commission from the retailer if you make a purchase from an affiliate link.

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1 Comments

  1. 1.26.21
    Julie said:

    I just love these posts. New lunch or dinner ideas are great! Do you subscribe to Jenny from dinner: a love story’s newsletter? She also just shared a white bean type salad with burrata. Yum! I also got Vivian Howard’s new cookbook and it’s all about how to dress up simple ingredients. It sounds like something you’d love to try.