You know a dish is good for you when there are this many colors in it! This Paleo Mixed Green Salad (with Cranberries, and goat cheese) is full of antioxidants and just overall ah-mazing.
When you start eating healthier, your taste buds change. Dramatically. I love to remind people I didn’t start eating greens or meat until I was like 16 years old. But when I started introducing new healthy, real foods and eliminated the over-stimulating unhealthy foods, magic happened. I mean have you ever thought about how over-stimulating unhealthy foods can be. Many are just a combination of unhealthy fats, tons of sugar, and salt. All which send rewards to your brain, saying YES! But you can’t hardly taste the flavor with all of the stimulation. After some adjusting, those foods start to lose their appeal. It isn’t hard for me to say no to chocolate cake anymore. Just give me a Kale Salad with some hard boiled eggs on top, and I’ll be set.
If you’re interested in some other salads, I have a nice Kale Salad recipe (similar to this recipe), and I also have an amazing Chicken Salad or Egg Salad that would be divine on top of this salad. These are perfect make-ahead meals, and I know you are probably trying to get in the habit of food prep.
This recipe can be Whole 30 approved, with a few changes. Make sure your cranberries don’t have added sugar. Many of them do, so be careful. To make it easier, you could just substitute raisins for cranberries. It’s an easy switch, and I’m a big fan of raisins. I personally put goat cheese on mine, because that sounded delicious at the time and I’m not on a Whole 30. If you really want to get crazy (not Whole30 again), you could drizzle a bit of honey on it. I suggest the honey because Kale can be bitter!
Well I had too much fun photographing this recipe. I hope you like the pictures. Comment below if you love KALE and this Paleo Mixed Green Salad!


- ½ lb. Kale leaves, center rib removed (6-8 leaves)
- 6 oz. Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved and cored
- ½ small head radicchio, cored
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (app. 2 lemons)
- ½ cup Extra Virgin Light olive oil
- Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 3-6 oz. Hard Goat Cheese, grated (optional)
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- Using a sharp chef’s knife, cut the kale, Brussels sprouts and radicchio crosswise in thin slices, as you would for coleslaw. Put them in a large bowl.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper. Pour enough dressing on the salad to moisten it, reserving the rest.
- Grate the goat cheese, using the large holes of a grater, and add to the salad, along with the dried cranberries and sliced almonds. Toss carefully to avoid breaking up the cheese. Add more vinaigrette if necessary and put in refrigerator to get cold and to let the flavors mix. Serve cold or at room temperature.
- Make it ahead: Prepare the salad ingredients and store in plastic bags in the refrigerator for a day or two. Make the vinaigrette and refrigerator for up to one day. Toss together a few hours before serving.
Liz S. says
DEFINITELY love this salad (and kale!), and the mixture of nourishing, delicious ingredients.
stacey says
Looks absolutely delicious!
Monica Bravo says
Thanks Stacey!
Michele Spring says
I must need kale because I looked at this recipe and want it more than any of the dessert recipes I’ve seen this week, which says a LOT (and says a lot for your food photography) 🙂 Looks amazing!
Monica Bravo says
Wow so sweet!! : ) I’ve been trying to improve my photography, so you just made my day!
Rachel says
Changing taste-buds is one of my favorite parts of eating healthy. Kinda makes taste-testing for my blog inaccurate though, ha!
Monica Bravo says
Haha oh yeah, sometimes things taste AAmazing to me, and someone who eats tons of junk may think it tastes plain #paleobloggerproblems I guess