I made the Kale Salad with Cherries and Pecans from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook as a side dish one night, but ended up eating just about all of it for lunches instead.

I used a combination of pecans and hazlenuts, since I didn’t have enough of the former and thought the latter would go well. I also only put on about half of the dressing to start, and massaged it in. It looked like too much to me, and I’d rather have to add dressing to an underdressed salad.

In terms of prep, I did what I usually do which is to chop the kale and then clean and dry it in my salad spinner, which works great. I have double-sided cutting boards, so I just flip it over after that and quickly wash the knife. (I do the same thing with romaine lettuce, which I find also helps remove the bitter taste you get sometimes).

This is a tasty kale salad, and it’s very easy to make. As with all kale salads it’s got some chew, which I like. But I do think you need to balance that with some crunch, and the radishes help a lot with that. If you want to skip them, I’d recommend adding more toasted nuts or some other crisp, crunchy element.