This seemingly simple kale salad has been on the menu at Oak at Fourteenth restaurant for over a decade. I think it is because it is a perfect balance of salty-tart-sweet-crunchy-and a little bit of spice.

The chef-partner Steven Redzikowski has shared the recipe in local magazines and on social media several times. I have used his recipe and made it dozens of times and it is truly a restaurant quality salad if you don’t stray too far from the suggested portions and ingredients. I’ll copy the recipe below and put my comments in paratheses.

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Zest and juice of 1 medium lemon
• 2 cups thinly sliced kale (any kale works, just slice it thinly)
• 1/4 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped candied almonds (you can use any candied nut (I use honey roasted peanuts sometimes) or even seeded granola if you can’t eat nuts. The sweetness from the candied nuts adds a much needed balance to the tartness in the salad. If you aren’t using candied nuts or granola add a little honey or agave or some other sweetener.)
• 1 apple-sweet not tart apple (slice it very-very thinly-you want a thin slice of apple in every bite)
• About 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• About 1/4 tsp. pepper
• Ichimi togarashi* or red pepper flakes (*available the Asian area of the grocery store. You can use any red pepper flakes but the togarashi is really nice mild finely ground spice. The spice is a nice balance to the tartness of the apples.)