Spicy Kale Salad with Poached Egg

Try making this Spicy Kale Salad with Poached Egg at home! Easy to make and very satisfying.

If you had told me a few years ago that I would regularly make a salad with dressing from scratch without a recipe and that I would like it, I would have laughed out loud. I liked my greens, but I struggled with homemade salads (as you could see from my year-long Smitten Kitchen adventure in 2014) and always thought salads were mostly bland, boring, and/or weird. But this easy-peasy salad – Spicy Kale Salad with Poached Egg – has won me over and is a staple in my diet. I crave it!

My boyfriend is the one that introduced me to this salad and in fact, it’s the first dish (in a more plain variation) he ever made me. I scoffed at it and later told my friends, “he made me a KALE SALAD, and it was kind of boring.” Ha! You might remember he brought this salad to my Cake Potluck Birthday Party and it was gone by the end of the party. So, this is originally his recipe.

In addition to being fairly quick to make, this salad is my favorite because of the kick of spice with the crushed red pepper. And how can you not love anything with a perfectly poached egg! The egg makes the kale soft without needing massaging, and the lemon juice and olive oil dressing base is so easy.

And this is how I’ve become a salad person. Slowly but surely. I’ve learned simple salads can be delicious while also being fast, easy and cheap!

Spicy Kale Salad with Poached Egg
Serves 2

Ingredients

For the dressing:

• 1 lemon, juiced (about 3 tablespoons)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium clove of garlic, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper or to your spice preference
• Pinch of salt

For the salad:

• 4 cups kale or 1 bunch de-stemmed and massaged (This is the packaged, organic kale we get at HEB. About 4-5 handfuls in each salad.)
• 2 poached eggs
• 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese or to your preference
• Croutons (optional)

Instructions

For the dressing:

1. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well.

For the salad:

1. In a large bowl, mix the kale and poached eggs.
2. Pour the dressing over and mix well.
3. Add the parmesan cheese and croutons and mix.

Note:

• Do you know the secret to make poached eggs? Julia Childs’s trick helps the egg stay together when you crack it. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Use a pin to poke a hole at the top of the egg. Boil the uncracked egg for 10 seconds. Decrease the heat and cool the water to a simmer. Swirl the water and crack the egg into the water. Let it cook for two minutes.

Do you have a favorite salad recipe? Share it below!

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