Simple Kale and Couscous Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette and Sea Scallops

Simple kale salad with lots of texture and flavor. This salad is a mixture of kale, couscous, almonds, onions, and cherry tomatoes topped with an easy homemade apricot vinaigrette. 

This is not just another kale salad with some complicated homemade dressing. Nah, that’s not this at all. I will admit that this is my favorite salad that I have ever put together. I’m not even kidding. Plus, the homemade vinaigrette is far from complicated. So far from it that it requires no blender and no food processor. All it takes is 3 ingredients plus some salt and pepper.

How is that for simple guys?!! Super simple aside, this apricot vinaigrette is one of my favorite salad dressings I have ever made.

I make a fair amount of salads on a regular basis. The thing I love most about this salad is that I was literally just throwing some stuff together in a bowl to go with our roasted chicken a few weeks ago. My husband and I both got wide-eyed and could not stop talking about how great the salad tasted. It was fantastic! The MVP of the salad is definitely the apricot vinaigrette if you haven’t noticed as of yet! The hubs was even dipping his toasted pretzel bread in it (I may have tried that too). Let me tell you it was taaassty!

There are two main things that make a green salad unforgettable in my mind. The first is a great dressing. If you have that, you can make any mediocre salad taste great. The second is to add lots of color and texture. It is best to keep some dried fruit and nuts in your pantry for easy add-ins to salads. They make a world of difference in a salad. I am usually relying on cheese for a salad topper and it didn’t even cross my mind with this salad because there was already so much flavor and texture. One more minor but also big detail in a salad is trimming the stems. I really like spinach and kale, but the stems just kind of ruin it ya know.

Okay, okay you may have also noticed the scallops. It seems they are frequenting our dinner table a little more often these days. I haven’t even mentioned them yet, but pretty sure they need no introduction when cooked just right. The main event here is definitely the salad! Yet, I knew this salad would be super tasty with some buttery scallops.

Guess what? Yup, I was totally right! The combo just kills it.

This Simple Kale and Couscous Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette is a straight up top of the list dinner date meal at home!

Simple Kale and Couscous Salad

It’s Fancy
It’s Simple
It’s Quick

Check out this article over at healthyline.com about the benefits of eating kale to find out why you should be including more kale in your diet! Great article!

Simple Kale and Couscous Salad with Apricot Vinaigrette and Sea Scallops

Megan

Simple kale salad with lots of texture and flavor. This salad is a mixture of kale, couscous, almonds, onions, and cherry tomatoes topped with an easy homemade apricot vinaigrette.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 7 minutes mins

Total Time 27 minutes mins

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

Salad

• 4 cups of fresh kale stems removed
• 1/2 cup yellow onion chopped
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds
• 1/3 cup cooked couscous I used Near East Whole Grain Blends Garlic & Olive Oil
• 5 cherry tomatoes quartered

Apricot Vinaigrette

• 2 teaspoons apricot preserves
• 3 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• pinch of black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Sea Scallops

• 1/2 pound sea scallops
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon herbs from provence

Instructions

 

Apricot Vinaigrette

• Combine apricot preserves and vinegar in a medium bowl and whisk together well.
• Add salt and pepper.
• Slowly pour in olive oil and whisk together well until combined.
• Refrigerate until ready to use.

Kale Salad

• Cook couscous according to package instructions. Cut up tomatoes and chop onion.
• In a large bowl, add kale followed by onion, couscous, cherry tomatoes, and almonds.
• Set aside.
• When ready to serve, pour apricot dressing over salad. May need to whisk dressing again before adding to salad.

Sea Scallops

• In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Season scallops with salt and pepper.
• Cook scallops for 3-4 minutes or until bottom is golden brown and then carefully flip scallops over.
• Add butter and herbs from provence. Cook for another 3 minutes or until golden brown. Occasionally lift pan and tilt to move butter around and with a spoon pour butter over scallops.
• Remove from heat and serve with salad and crusty bread.

Notes

The box of couscous will make more than is needed for this recipe. However, it is a great side to go with other meals.

The apricot vinaigrette is not included in the nutrition facts label. For every 2 tablespoons of dressing there is 130 Calories. The vinaigrette makes about 1/2 cup.

The apricot vinaigrette was adapted from Bobby Flay's Apricot Vinaigrette.

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