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kale & pasta salad

$6.15 recipe / $1.03 serving

The moment I saw this recipe over at Kalyn's Kitchen, I knew I had to make it and share it with all of you. It fits the Budget Bytes formula to a "T". Take a few expensive/flavorful ingredients (olives, tomatoes & feta) and bulk them out with inexpensive ingredients (kale & pasta) to bring the cost per serving down. It works every time!

I made a few changes to the original (check the original recipe out too, because it looks awesome) to fit my budget and what I had on hand. I made a basic red wine vinaigrette instead of a pesto dressing, used sun dried tomatoes instead of fresh, and left the kale pretty much raw. Oh, and I didn't use whole wheat pasta, but only because I wanted these little "flower" shaped ones that reminded me of the curly kale leaves :)

If you don't want the kale to be raw, you can simply pour the boiling water and pasta right on top of the kale in the colander when you drain it. The hot water will wilt the kale in the process. Two birds with one stone!

Or, say you don't like kale. You can totally do this salad with regular green leaf lettuce, but you won't want that to wilt at all, so make sure your pasta is sufficiently drained and cooled before you combine the two.

Anyway, this salad was a hit in my book. Loved it so much that I almost choked to death on a kale leaf while scarfing it down. True story.

Kale & Pasta Salad

Kale Pasta Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes & Olives

Adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen Whole Wheat Pasta Salad with Fried Kale, Tomatoes, Olives, Feta, and Pesto Vinaigrette
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Total Recipe cost: $6.15
Servings Per Recipe: 6 (1.5 cups each)
Cost per serving: $1.03
Prep time: 10 min. Cook time: 15 min. Total: 25 min.
NOTE: If you wilt the kale more, the volume of the salad will be less and will probably make about 4 servings.

SALAD INGREDIENTS		COST
1 bunch	kale	$0.99
8 oz.	pasta	$0.50
1/2 cup	mediterranean olives	$1.17
1/3 cup	sun dried tomtatoes in oil	$2.07
2 oz.	feta cheese	$0.87
DRESSING INGREDIENTS		COST
2 Tbsp	olive oil	$0.32
1 Tbsp	red wine vinegar	$0.08
1 clove	garlic	$0.08
1/2 tsp	dried oregano	$0.03
1/4 tsp	salt	$0.02
to taste	freshly cracked pepper	$0.02
TOTAL		$6.15

STEP 1: Pull the kale leaves from the woody stems and tear them into small, bite sized pieces. Place the torn kale in a colander and rinse well with cool water. Allow the kale to drain as you prepare the rest of the salad.

STEP 2: Bring a medium pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and let it continue to boil for 7-10 minutes or until the pasta is tender. Once the pasta has cooked, drain it in a colander. Pour the boiled pasta over the rinsed kale in the colander if you want the kale to be wilted.

STEP 3: While you're waiting for the pasta to cook, roughly chop the olives and sun dried tomatoes. By chopping them into smaller pieces, you can use less and still have a small bit of each in every bite.

STEP 4: While the pasta is cooking you can also prepare the dressing. Mince the clove of garlic and whisk it together with the olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper.

STEP 5: Combine the kale, pasta, dressing, chopped olives, tomatoes, and feta cheese. Toss to coat and then serve!

Kale & Pasta Salad

Step By Step Photos

Kale stems are really tough, which makes it super easy to pull the leaves off of them. Also make sure to tear the leaves into small pieces. Put all of the kale pieces in a colander and rinse them well. You don't want a sandy salady (that was a typo, but I like the way it sounded).

boil pasta

Start boiling the pasta. I got these cool little shapes that kind of match the kale leaves.

olives tomatoes

These were the two most expensive ingredients, but luckily they are also so flavorful that you don't need a lot! I grabbed just a couple olives off of the olive/salad bar so that I didn't have to buy a whole $6 jar. They usually have sun dried tomatoes on the bar too, but not this time. So, I bought a jar. Luckily they last a long time in the fridge and I love them on everything, so no loss.

chop olives tomatoes

Chop the olives and tomatoes so that they spread throughout the salad well. Oh yeah, make sure that you get pitted olives, or else you'll have a time with this step!

I tried to make my dressing in the blender, but the volume was too low. No problem, the dressing can just be whisked together in a bowl. Just make sure to mince the garlic well.

wilt kale

I tried to wilt the kale half way by adding the hot, but drained, pasta right on top of it, but the kale was too sturdy and pasta not hot enough. So, next time I'll pour the boiling water and pasta right on top of the kale in the colander to make sure it wilts a bit. Just be careful not to let everything over flow out of your colander!

combine dressing kale pasta