This Chopped Tomato Cucumber Kale Salad is an easy, delicious, and flavor-packed summer salad! Loaded with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and baby kale and topped with a quick Italian dressing, it’s perfect for an easy weeknight side, BBQ side dish, or meal prep dish. Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, paleo, and Whole30 approved!
What’s your favorite summer produce pick? For me this is a really tough question. I mean I love all veggies and fruit. We have berries, cherries, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, and so much more during the summer. But I think the winner is tomatoes. Summertime tomatoes are literally insane compared to ones you get in the winter. Especially if you are snagging some local ones. I pop the cherry tomatoes like candy and can eat the larger ones like apples. So so good.
Growing up we would eat tomatoes and cucumbers all throughout summer. My parents grew tomatoes and we would always have them on hand. My dad is a huge fans of cucumbers and he would snack on them after work when we were prepping dinner. If we were eating dinner at home, we usually always had some kind of salad. If we were in a time crunch or low on veggies, a quick tomato cucumber salad was the go-to.
Chopped Tomato Cucumber Kale Salad
This salad takes your basic tomato and cucumber salad and just takes it up a notch with the addition of kale and an easy homemade Italian dressing. This this is what you need:
- baby kale
- cucumbers
- tomatoes
- Italian seasoning – I love this kind
- olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- lemon juice
- red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper
To assemble, first you roughly chop all the veggies. Make the dressing and then mix with the chopped cucumber and kale. Then add the tomatoes and gently toss. That’s it! I topped mine with some fresh parsley from some earthiness, but it’s totally optional.
This salad works great for an easy weeknight dinner, a side dish for a summer BBQ or picnic, or even for meal prep throughout the week. To make it a full meal add some grilled chicken or salmon or even chickpeas would be good if you don’t eat meat.
I made it for some meal prep clients and they loved it. I also shared it on my stories on Instagram when I was making it and had a lot of questions about it so I figured I had to share! Gotta love the easy and simple summer recipes!
If you make this recipe or anything from Eat the Gains, make sure to post it and tag me so I can see all of your creations!!
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Chopped Tomato Cucumber Kale Salad
ingredients
Chopped Tomato Cucumber Kale Salad
- 5 cups packed baby kale (5 ounces/142 grams)
- 2 medium cucumbers, roughly chopped (3 cups/395 grams)
- 7 small tomatoes, quartered (3 cups/380 grams)
- optional topping: fresh parsley
Italian Dressing
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- red pepper flakes, to taste
- salt and pepper, to taste
instructions
- Make the dressing by putting all the ingredients into a small jar and mix well. Set aside.
- Roughly chop the kale and add to a large mixing bowl. Add cucumber and dressing and mix well. Add diced tomatoes and gently toss to cover with dress. Top with fresh parsley if using.
nutrition
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Betsy says
This was a hit! I had tons of kale from a produce box, cukes and tomatoes from my parents’ garden. Even the teens ate it without complaint. Thanks!
Kelly says
Yay! Love that everyone enjoyed! And yay for all the summer produce!
Shama says
I made this and I loved it.Thank you for this amazing recipe.I usually struggle with eating Kale but I enjoyed eating this salad.
Kelly says
Yay, so happy to hear that! Thanks for trying it Shama!