Kale Pasta Salad

This kale pasta salad recipe is a great option when you’re looking for a lighter pasta salad for summer! It’s got a delicious vinaigrette dressing, and it’s loaded with fresh ingredients. 

This recipe originally appeared on The Recipe Critic. I contribute one recipe per month to Alyssa’s blog. 

I’m all for a variety of pasta salads. Ones with creamy dressings like my creamy tuna pasta salad or this Cajun pasta salad are great, but I also prefer ones that are less heavy on the mayo like my easy Greek pasta salad or chicken pesto pasta salad. 

The ingredient that makes the dressing in this salad taste so good is freshly grated parmesan cheese. I grated it very finely, and it integrates perfectly with the other ingredients. I mean, you can’t go wrong with salami either… I wouldn’t leave it out of this pasta salad. 😉 

How to make kale pasta salad

1. Cook the pasta and then rinse it with cool water and drain it thoroughly.
2. Meanwhile, prep your other ingredients and add them to a large salad bowl.
3. Add the dressing ingredients to a jar and shake it thoroughly.
4. Toss the pasta salad, and you can either enjoy it right away or let it chill first.

A few recipe tips:

• I used a whole salami and cut it up myself. Anything around 8 ounces will work fine – you don’t need to be exact.
• Feel free to use whatever color bell pepper you prefer.
• Sometimes recipes will say that kale needs to be massaged (it’s naturally quite tough), but I find it’s easier to simply remove the leaves from the stems and then chop the kale finely. This is how I prepare most of my kale salads. The salad dressing will also help soften the kale up a bit.
• You can make this pasta salad ahead if you wish. It is best freshly made (in my opinion), but the kale won’t go soggy like lettuce does. We were still enjoying the leftovers three days later.
• If the dressing is not enough/too tangy, do adjust the oil/vinegar quantities to get the taste you’re looking for.

Love kale? Try my baby kale salad with lemon dressing and parmesan croutons.

I hope you’re having a great summer so far! The weather’s not been so great (soo much rain) in my neck of the woods, but at least I got to enjoy nice sunny weather on my trip to Denver. If you’re into following the girl behind the blog, I do post behind-the-scenes real life snippets on my stories on Instagram. 🙂

Will you make this kale pasta salad?

Questions? Ask me in the comments below.

5 from 1 vote

Kale Pasta Salad

By Natasha Bull

This kale pasta salad recipe is a great option when you're looking for a lighter pasta salad for summer! It's got a delicious vinaigrette dressing, and it's loaded with fresh ingredients. 

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 20 minutes mins

Servings: 6

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Ingredients 

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• ▢ 3 cups uncooked penne
• ▢ 8 ounces salami diced
• ▢ 1 cup little tomatoes (grape, cherry, etc.) halved
• ▢ 1/2 yellow bell pepper chopped
• ▢ 2 cups (packed) kale stems removed and chopped finely
• ▢ 1/4 cup red onion or to taste
• ▢ Salt & pepper (to taste) to taste

Dressing:

• ▢ 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• ▢ 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• ▢ 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1 clove garlic minced
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (packed) brown sugar

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Instructions 

• Boil a large, salted pot of water for the pasta. Cook the pasta al dente according to package instructions. Once the pasta is done, rinse it under cool water and let it drain thoroughly.
• Meanwhile, prep your other ingredients and add them to a large salad bowl as you go along. The kale should be removed from the stems and chopped very finely. Add the dressing ingredients to a jar.
• Once the pasta is done, add it to the bowl. Shake the dressing thoroughly and toss the salad until coated. Season the pasta salad with salt & pepper as needed. You can eat it right away or chill it for an hour or so prior to eating.

Notes

• Serves 6+ depending on how much people eat.

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