Kale Apple Salad
Updated Nov 05, 2026
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Crisp with fresh fruit, this kale apple salad recipe is everything you want from a fall-themed bowl of greens. It has halved grapes, toasted walnuts and manchego cheese, all tossed in a mustardy white wine vinaigrette.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Salad season is year round. I just change the type of lettuce and the feature ingredient. One of my favorite additions is fruit because I love savory dishes that are balanced with sweet bites here and there.
Apples are absolutely perfect for fall salads. Sliced or diced they go with pretty much any greens, even something as strong and sturdy as kale, where they balance out that pleasantly bitter flavor.
This salad is filling and worthy of being a main dish. I am a kale lover because it’s one of those lettuces that can take on lots of other ingredients without wilting or being weighed down.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Kale: Lacinato or dino kale (a.k.a. tuscan kale) or curly green kale will work. If you don’t like kale, so you can use spinach or arugula.
- Apples: Pink lady and honeycrisp apples are good in salads because they brown more slowly than other varieties.
- Grapes: By slicing the grapes in half, they end up more distributed throughout the salad. Pomegranate seeds are a good swap, and so are dried cranberries.
- Walnuts: Toast them in a 350-degrees F oven for 5-7 minutes to bring out all their nutty flavor. Sometimes I also make this salad with pecans.
- Manchego is a semi-hard Spanish sheep’s milk cheese. I slice it very thinly using a vegetable peeler. You can substitute with a hard English cheddar cheese or Parmesan cheese.
- Chives gives the salad something a little bit oniony and herby.
- White wine vinaigrette: The dressing is a simple mix of minced garlic, whole grain mustard, white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
How To Make This Kale Apple Salad
1. Chop the kale. Pull the leaves off the center stems and roughly chop them.
2. Make the vinaigrette. Whisk together the mustard, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
3. Combine the salad ingredients including the chopped kale leaves, sliced apples, grapes, toasted walnuts, Manchego and chives in a big bowl.
4. Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad, tossing to combine. I don’t bother massaging the vinaigrette into the kale because I think the leaves get well dressed without doing that.
Serving
Kale is very filling, so this can be served as a main dish salad for lunch or dinner. You can add roasted chicken or tofu, or stir in cooked quinoa or farro to make it more hearty. Try serving it with this roasted carrot soup or this creamy pumpkin soup. I also have served this salad at Thanksgiving because I love the freshness with a big meal.
More Apple Salad Recipes
Autumn Chopped Salad
Apple Cabbage Salad
Brussels Sprouts Apple Salad
Fall Harvest Salad
Apple Quinoa Walnut Salad
Apple Pecan Chopped Salad
Looking for more salad inspiration? Check out my seasonal salad guide with recipes and tips on ingredients, meal prep and more.
Kale Apple Salad
Ingredients
For salad
- 1 bunch lacinato kale or curly kale
- 3 apples (Pink Lady or Honeycrisp), thinly sliced
- 1 cup halved red grapes
- 1/4 cup toasted walnuts
- 1/3 cup shaved Manchego cheese
- 2 tablespoons minced chives
For vinaigrette
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
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Instructions
- To cut the kale, tear the leaves from the center ribs and roughly chop them.
- In a large bowl, combine the kale, apples, grapes, walnuts, Manchego and chives.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, mustard, salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil.
- Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad, tossing to combine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this salad as a main and it was delicious! I didn’t have nuts, so used roasted pumpkin seeds instead. The dressing alone is worth five stars, but the combination of hearty kale, sweet grapes, and crisp apple was fantastic. My husband and I both went back for seconds. We’ll be making this again! Thank you!