This simple Appalachian-style salad comes together quickly; the warm bacon and apple cider vinaigrette wilts the kale leaves.
Warm Kale Salad with Bacon and Hard-Cooked Eggs
Ingredients
- 5 slices thick-cut bacon (about 6 oz.)
- 3 scallions, trimmed
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 large shallot, coarsely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
- 3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbs. grainy Dijon mustard, such as Maille Old-Style
- 1/4 tsp. granulated sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 lb. Russian or lacinato kale, stemmed and cut into bite-size pieces
- 8 radishes, trimmed and quartered lengthwise through the stem
- 3 hard-cooked eggs, halved
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat, turning occasionally, until crisp. Leaving the fat in the pan, transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Add the scallions to the skillet and cook, flipping occasionally, until lightly charred, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a separate paper-towel-lined plate. Reserve 2 Tbs. of the bacon fat, pour off the remaining fat, and wipe out the skillet.
- Combine the 2 Tbs. bacon fat with the vinegar, shallot, oil, mustard, sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper in a blender and blend until combined, about 1 minute. (Alternatively, whisk by hand.) Transfer the vinaigrette to the skillet, add the kale, radishes, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, and cook over medium-high heat, tossing occasionally, until the kale begins to wilt, 4 to 5 minutes. Crumble half of the bacon into the skillet and toss to combine.
- Coarsely chop the scallions. Transfer the kale to a serving platter, crumble the remaining bacon on top, arrange the hard-cooked eggs around the platter, top with the scallions, and serve.
