One of the most common salads is your traditional Caesar salad. While a traditional Caesar salad may be tasty it’s not exactly always the healthiest. Restaurants pile on the creamy dressing, load on the croutons, and add a more than a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
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I love Caesar salad and wanted to put a little twist on it to lighten it up. First, I started with kale as my base. The key, in my opinion, for eating kale raw in a salad is to stick to baby kale. Baby kale is more tender and not a fibrous as your big leafy kale. Why kale? – Because it is packed with a ton of nutrients. Stick to your dark leafy greens as they are more nutrient dense.
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Next up, how to get that crunch factor without the empty calories of croutons. Insert roasted chickpeas! Now, you can make your own roasted chickpeas, but I went for the ones from my grocery store: The Good Bean. They come in all different flavors, but for this recipe I stuck to the sea salt variety. A crunch factor with more fiber and protein – check!
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One of the biggest calorie bombs to the traditional Caesar salad is the creamy full fat salad dressing. To put a healthy twist on this salad, I added some healthy fat avocado on top and switched the dressing to a lighter vinaigrette.
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- Dressing:
- 2 tbsp garlic, minced
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 1 tsp anchovy paste
- ½ cup olive oil
- Salad:
- 6 cups baby kale, washed
- 1 avocado, diced
- ½ roasted chickpeas
- 2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients, except the olive oil. Slowly stream in the olive oil while whisking vigorously.
- Toss kale with the dressing until coated. (Note: incorporate a little dressing at a time, just until salad is coated – do not over dress! Save the remaining for additional salads.)
- Top salad with avocado, roasted chickpeas, and parmesan cheese (if using).
In good health,
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