Garlicky Kale Salad with Crispy Chickpeas

This is my “go to” favorite kale salad! I’ve made it for other people and I’m always asked for the recipe. When I first made it, I thought the amount of garlic might be too much- but it’s not!! The dressing is perfect! My husband has learned how to make this recipe too (it’s not too difficult) and it’s a favorite in our house!

I’ve been making this for a loooong time now– favorite salad by far. Sometimes I add some sauteed Quorn chik’n or soy curls for extra protein. I add a healthy dash of smoked paprika to the dressing while mixing. Thanks for a great recipe. It’s a staple.

With the dressing, I used honey instead of maple syrup and it turned out way too sweet. I would just caution on taste testing sweetness more carefully, which was my mistake.

So yummy! The chickpeas, dressing and the tender, lemony kale

I use online recipes almost daily & I never leave reviews. But this salad. So good. Dressing was perfection. You must try it.

This is amazing and the best kale salad I’ve ever had! Fairly easy and other than the tandoori easy to find ingredients! I’ll be making this again.

Oh my, I was completely craving this today! Recipe is fantastic.

I didn’t have the indian spice blend so did a random mix of 1/2 tsp of cumin, garlic powder, garam masala and turmeric.

Other than that, didn’t change a thing. The dressing is soooo wonderful!

This is SOOOO delicious. 10/10

Great recipe! I think next time I’ll add less lemon (too acidic for my taste) and more chickpeas (because they were yummy!). I added vegan bacon to mine and it really took the salad to the next level. I think next time I’ll add more garlic to the sauce! I didn’t put in as much as the recipe called for (didn’t have enough garlic on hand), and the garlic flavor didn’t really come out. My main critique is that I didn’t really feel like the salad was fully satisfying – I still felt pretty hungry after finishing. I think adding more chickpeas will help!

So yummy!! The flavors are delicious and I appreciate the tip to massage the kale with lemon juice and oil. It gave the kale a perfect texture. I added some plant based “parmesan” and it took it over the top!

My partner made this last night at my request and we loved the roasted chickpeas but both felt the salad dressing was cloying. The tahini overpowered all the other flavours, even after he tried adjusting the flavor with lemon juice and maple syrup. I feel like it has great potential if we can find a more balanced dressing.

Love!

Loved this recipe!!! I made this for lunch with sliced chicken breast on top (I marinated it in olive oil, lemon, and zaatar). It was wonderful. I had to keep my chickpeas in the oven for a bit longer to get them super crispy. Can’t wait to make again!

This recipe is soooo delicious!!
Thanks for including alternative spices if we didn’t have the exact one (which I didn’t).

I actually added about a cup of nutritional yeast to the sauce mixture along with more water to thin it, and man it was so good! Added a buttery flavor.

This is one of my new favorites for sure!!

Made this tonight to go with a steak for a change. Added a bit of red onion, tomato and feta but absolutely loved it. Definitely the best kale recipe I’ve tried yet :)

Ok. My husband ate it and said he liked it, I’m so so on it. I followed the dressing recipe to a T and it seemed like waaaay too much tahini was involved in this and for my taste, the sweetness just stuck out in a really odd way. I doubled the lemon, kept adding water, added all the oil from the garlic, and it was still a big oversweet glob that would not incorporate well. I’m not sure if I overcooked the chickpeas, but I did not enjoy the texture after roasting, kind of dry and stringy. Wondering if I should try slow cooking in my cast iron frying pan. Also just greens would make this extremely one note, I added red onion and cucumber and still felt it was out of balance, seemed like it needed sliced apple or chopped tomato or something ( beets?). Could have been the huge amount of tahini. I appreciate the ideas behind it, and may try tweaking it to suit my tastes better. Something smoky tasting would have been good, but I wasn’t getting that from the chickpeas like someone else mentioned.

Winner in my household! Made almost exactly as suggested. Just added sea salt and a little more lemon juice to the kale. Also added a few more tablespoons of maple syrup to the dressing. Chickpeas were perfect. Had to stop myself from eating the roasted garlic as I pressed it out of the skins! Great recipe. Thanks! Definitely adding to the food rotation!

Terrible recipe, from the tahini dressing to the chickpeas

We make this regularly over the years. Only change is i use less garlic as I’m sensitive to it.
Even my 8 year old eats it (mind you a picky eater would starve in our household).
Live this & many recipes on this blog and we arent vegan or vegetarians but eat that way half of the time.

this was so dang yummy! thanks :-)

This recipe made a superb dinner tonight! I made the DIY masala blend and it complemented the chickpeas well, I used 3 TBSP and it was probably a little too much. I added some tomatoes and Persian cucumbers to the kale to give it some additional textures. Will definitely be adding this to my list of favorite MB recipes!

This is probably my favorite recipe. Like ever. Seriously. I have this once a week. Lol I’ll even have the leftovers for breakfast, but usually there aren’t leftovers. I love garlic so sometimes I add extra. I prefer the dressing without honey or maple syrup, but my boyfriend likes it with.

I just made this and it is delicious! The dressing is so good. I used 1 tablespoon maple syrup rather than honey. It’s my new favorite tahini dressing. I try not to use the oven during the summer, but this recipe was well worth it. Perfect salad with lots of great flavor!

I just made the dressing, and sautéed the kale instead of rubbed because I like kale a little softer. Super delicious dressing, 10/10 would make again 😊

Best. Kale. Salad. Ever. I’ve been making this for at least 2 years now and it’s still my favorite salad. I can have the whole bowl to myself and be a happy camper. But I usually share and my fiance, who hates salad typically, things it’s also really good. Sometimes I make the salad per the recipe, sometimes I’ll leave out the garlic and the chickpeas if it’s summer time and I can’t be bothered to turn the oven on, and other times I’ll half it and make a quick salad for myself. It never disappoints! Thank you!

I’ve made this salad twice now. Second time around I kept the garlic whole and sliced the top off and cooked it that way, much easier to work with. I found that baby kale was also a great swap. ☺️

I made this dish last night but it was extremely bitter. I massaged the kale for some good 5 min beforehand with lemon juice and oil. The bitterness overpowered even the Tahini dressing which is usually giving some nice flavour to it. Unfortunately, this will not be a keeper recipe (many others from your website are though :-)).

I ended up having to cook my chickpeas longer than the recommended time, and they weren’t as crispy as I kind of wanted. My room mate has an air fryer, and the second time I made them I used it, and that did make them super crispy. That being said, I like that this recipe uses an oven since not everyone has an air fryer. Its super yummy either way, the texture is just a little more crunchy from an air fryer.

This was finger licking good. I didn’t have tahini so used natural peanut butter instead, and skipped the olive oil in the dressing.

One of my favorite “go-to’s” when it comes to a hearty and SO delicious kale dressing! I like to add roasted sweet potatoes on the side and use the extra dip for the veggies and some crusty bread ? thank you for sharing this!

THIS WAS SO GOOD! I love the dressing – I didn’t add any water and it was perfect. The roasted garlic is delightful.

I’ve also been making this salad for years- I love it so much. I often go to the Chickpea Shawarma Sandwich recipe and use that blend for the chickpeas, or sometimes I use the Thai Baked Sweet Potato chickpea recipe. Anyway, we’re huge fans of your recipes Dana- you are so talented. Thank you for everything!
PS, I made the Muesli Bread recipe today and we’re having that with the salad tonight. Turned out great! Thanks!!
https://minimalistbaker.com/7-ingredient-muesli-bread/

I just want to say that I have been making this salad for years, YEARS! I love it. It is such the perfect after-holidays-feel-so-gross–antidote salad. Today I made two really delightful additions I thought you might like as well: I halved and roasted brussel sprouts seasoned with the leftover tandoori spice and olive oil that was in the bowl, and then added a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds before devouring. So good! Thanks for this recipe!

Made this for my husband and me for lunch today and it was excellent! My husband practically licked his plate. I followed the recipe to a T including making the spice mix except I only used a half a head of roasted garlic in the dressing. I was worried it would be too garlicky. MISTAKE! I barely tasted the garlic with half a head. Next time (and there will definitely be a next time), I will use the whole head. I also added a grilled chicken breast for more substance.

I literally make this salad ALL THE TIME. I eat it for lunch, dinner, for Thanksgiving and Christmas and even my DH eats it, too! I do use real Parmesan and always roast two cans of chickpeas, while I’m at it, so we have leftovers to snack on…I use 1 TBSP of the maple syrup and 6 to 8 cloves raw garlic in the dressing. I make the dressing in the minichop. I used to use Ken’s Steakhouse lite creamy Caesar dressing on my kale and I don’t think I could ever go back!!! Thx for this Recipe!!!

Oh my, this is delicious! My husband I and I devoured it.

I love a diversity of textures in salads and felt this one needed something a little extra – so I roasted some sweet potato cubes and added them in with some green beans. It was heavenly and SO filling. If you’re looking to make this receipe a bit more hearty I recommend trying this out! This lunch salad gets me all the way to dinner with no cravings.

Very delicious. I definitely had to make more dressing for the amount of kale I used, and I used two cans of chickpeas.

Nice balance of flavors – not too sweet or tart or astringent from garlic. A great dinner salad, especially the Monday before Thanksgiving!!

Wow, this was SOOO good and so SUPER easy! Thank you for another dinner winner! I found I was short on ingredients (only had 1/3 head of garlic in the cupboard) so I left the garlic raw. I also only had one lemon so I didn’t know how it would turn out, but I kept on truckin’… I didn’t measure anything (too lazy today) and I just threw the ingredients in the mini chop and turned it on for a few minutes, which is how I always make dressing…. For the chick peas, I eyeballed the seasonings and sprinkled them directly on my nonstick sheet pan. I was super thrilled with the results on all!!! I will definitely make this again and try it on the family next time.

‘‘This was really good. Will make again. Thanks!