Caesar Salad with Salmon

First and foremost, bless Kathleen Barnes (AKA Carrie Bradshaw Lied) for concocting the most perfectly amazing, LIGHT caesar salad dressing I’ve ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth. I don’t know how this woman figured out this recipe, but y’all — it is literal perfection, which is sort of annoying because she’s already stunningly beautiful, hilarious, and wildly successful. But whatever — I’m here for it.

I am hooked on her dressing and finding any opportunity I can to use it in my cooking. Take, for example, the most amazing caesar salmon salad I made this week. It’s incredibly simple to construct and, honest to G, may be the most delicious thing I’ve made in the kitchen yet.

Note: You can make this into 2 BIG salads or 3 medium salads or 4 small salads. It’s whatever you want!

INGREDIENTS

For Dressing

Juice of 1-2 lemons (personal preference here)

3 TBSP Worcestershire

2 TBSP Whole Grain Dijon Mustard (this one from Trader Joe’s is the best)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup good olive oil (I use Avocado Oil, always)

Salt and pepper to taste

For Salmon

1 pound of your favorite salmon

Good olive oil for brushing onto salmon

Salt, pepper, and whatever other seasonings you wish to sprinkle onto salmon

A squeeze of lemon

For Salad

5-7 cups of kale (up to your discretion. Depends on how much salad you want!)

Good olive oil

Salt

Your favorite parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

Set salmon out and bring to room temperature for 15-30 min (this helps with even cooking). In the meantime, preheat the oven to 450º.

Once salmon is room temp, blot with paper towel to dry off. Then, place salmon on a foil-lined baking sheet (skin side down) and brush lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and additional seasonings on top (I just use garlic powder) and put in oven to bake between 12-14 min.

While salmon bakes, prepare kale for salad. Make sure all ribs/stems are removed from kale leaves, place in a big bowl, sprinkle with salt and a little olive oil, and “massage” kale for 3-4 min (this makes kale way softer and more delicious to eat and is IMPERATIVE to do!). Set massaged kale aside and make the dressing.

Put all dressing ingredients into a bowl and whisk until fully mixed!

Once salmon is done, let cool for a few minutes. Squeeze a bit of lemon on it, then use fork to pull salmon apart into bite-size bits. To assemble salad, place desired amount of kale into salad bowl, top with desired amount of salmon and parmesan cheese, add as much dressing as you see fit and GET READY TO MOAN. Literal best homemade salad I’ve ever made.

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