Kale Pomegranate Salad Recipe (2024)

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October 18, 2021 by Emily Dingmannn 4 Comments

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5 from 2 reviews

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If you’re looking for a gorgeous side or salad for holiday tables…you’ve found it! This kale pomegranate salad recipe is simple, flavorful, and made with just 8 ingredients (a lot of pantry staples, too!). My kale and pomegranate salad is made with deep green kale (beautiful and nutritious), a bright lemon dressing, salty feta, crunchy nuts, and sweet and tart pomegranate seeds. Try this pomegranate salad for Christmas or Thanksgiving!

Serve this pomegranate salad for lamb, or along side your holiday meals. I love making this pomegranate salad for Christmas and Thanksgiving (along with sausage stuffing, spatchco*ck turkey, air fryer turkey breast, cheesy potato casserole!) because it’s a bright side to a lot of heavier dishes AND it looks gorgeous on the table.

If you love kale salad recipes (I blame it on my time in LA ;)), be sure to try my kale and apple slaw and lemon kale salad next time.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

What You’ll Love About Kale Pomegranate Salad
Kale and Pomegranate Salad Ingredients
How to Make Kale Pomegranate Salad
Storage Instructions
How to Serve Kale Salad to the Whole Family
Substitutes + Nutrition
What to Serve with Kale and Pomegranate Salad
More Easy Salad Recipes
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Helpful Tools to Make Kale and Pomegranate Salad
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What You’ll Love About Kale Pomegranate Salad

Gorgeous colors (hence the Christmas salad name!)
Different textures (crunchy, creamy, juicy)
Made with simple ingredients
Easy to prep-ahead
Nutritious side dish full of veggies

Kale and Pomegranate Salad Ingredients

This pomegranate salad recipe is made with just 8 simple ingredients:

Kale – I recommend using dinosaur (lacinato kale) for best results, but green curly kale will also work.
Lemon – Use fresh lemon juice as we are using zest as well. You could also use a white balsamic vinegar.
Garlic – Use a garlic clove instead of jarred for best flavor.
Olive oil
Honey
Sea salt and black pepper
Feta cheese – If you can find it, block feta has much better flavor than already crumbled.
Nuts – Use chopped walnuts. You could also use pecans, almonds, or pumpkin seeds.
Pomegranate – You can buy the pomegranates fresh or buy a package of the arils (seeds) only.

How to Make Kale Pomegranate Salad

This kale and pomegranate salad is beyond easy! As I mentioned, I think it’s the perfect side for the holidays. Serve this pomegranate salad for Christmas or Thanksgiving for a light, bright side. Here’s how to make it:

Prep kale. Wash kale and dry well. Remove stems and thinly slice into ribbons and add to a large bowl.
Make dressing. Zest lemon and garlic using a microplane zester. Squeeze lemon juice with a citrus juicer, and whisk the lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper together. Or shake dressing ingredients together in a mason jar.

Assemble pomegranate salad recipe. Toss kale with dressing and lightly massage (if using dino kale you don’t need to do this as it’s more tender). Toss before serving, and top with pomegranate arils, walnuts, and feta cheese. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

TIP: If you dress your salad a few hours or a day before, it might seem dry. Drizzle with olive oil and a fresh squeeze of lemon juice before adding toppings.

Storage Instructions

Store this pomegranate salad recipe in the refrigerator without toppings for one day. Because kale is a hearty green, it’s ok to leave it dressed for a day.

If you want to prep some of the pomegranate salad with feta cheese ingredients ahead, here’s what you can do:

Kale – wash and dry kale. Thinly slice into ribbons.
Pomegranate seeds – If you’re buying a whole pomegranate, you can remove seeds and store in the refrigerator for a few days.
Dressing – you can make the dressing a day or two in advance.

How to Serve Kale Salad to the Whole Family

I get it, feeding kids can be tough! But following the Division of Responsibility and knowing your job and your child’s job makes it SO much more enjoyable. You’ll be able to feed your kids any meal, which will help ensure that they are eating a variety of nutritious foods – with plenty of play food sprinkled in. 😉

Start with a TINY portion. How tiny? One sliver of kale, one pomegranate aril, one small piece of nut.

All of my articles on feeding kids can be found here and if you want a FULL list of all of the videos I have with hacks, tips, scripts, and ideas for feeding kids, check out my instagram or tiktok page.

Substitutes + Nutrition

If you want to swap out any of the ingredients and toppings, here are a few ways you can add even more nutrition into this meal:

Dressing – You could also use balsamic dressing, my simple balsamic vinaigrette dressing
Pomegranate seeds – It obviously won’t be a salad with pomegranate seeds without the pomegranate seeds, but if you have trouble finding pomegranates you could always use dried cranberries or cherries. They’ll give a similar sweet, but tart flavor to the salad.
Nuts – I’ve made this winter green salad with pomegranates and walnuts or pecans, either work well, so feel free to use what you have or what you prefer.
Kale – I prefer to use dino (lacinato) kale for this pomegranate salad with feta cheese, but you could also use green (curly). Give it a little massage after you dress it to help tenderize it a bit.

What to Serve with Kale and Pomegranate Salad

Serve this kale and pomegranate salad recipe along with one of these protein main dishes:

Crock Pot Chicken and Potatoes
Crispy Curry Chicken Wings
Air Fryer Tilapia
Skillet Gnocchi
Fish Cakes

More Easy Salad Recipes

If you like this green salad with pomegranate and walnuts, you might also like some of these other simple salad recipes:

Kale Apple Slaw
Simple Lemon Kale Salad
Lemon Arugula Salad
Everyday Side Salad
16 Prosciutto Salad Recipes

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Microplane Zester – This zester is a must for my pomegranate salad recipe! Not only are we using it for lemon zest, but it’s a great way to grate the garlic so that there aren’t big chunks of raw garlic in the salad.
Citrus Juicer – The fastest way to get citrus juice for the kale pomegranate salad dressing – and ensure you don’t waste any by trying to do it by hand.