Salmon Salad with Crispy White Beans

Get ready to enjoy your new favorite dish: Salmon Salad with Crispy White Beans. Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce inflammation while the white beans add a satisfying crunch and fiber, all served up on a bed of kale. Read on for our best tips and tricks for this salad, including how to get the kale as tender as possible!

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Tips from the EatingWell Test Kitchen

These are the key tips we learned while developing and testing this recipe in our Test Kitchen to make sure it works, tastes great and is good for you too! 

• We recommend using center-cut salmon here. It’s the thicker portion of the salmon fillet and will give you more uniform pieces. If the cubes are cut from the thinner tail portion, they may overcook easily. 
• For nice browning on the salmon, we cook it near the bottom of the oven and move the pieces away from the center of the baking sheet. The bottom of the oven is hotter, as are the edges of the baking sheet; this gives the salmon pieces good color without overcooking them. 
• Massaging the kale leaves softens their texture, making them more tender, and helps distribute and infuse the flavor of the dressing into the leaves. It’s best to use your (clean!) hands to massage the kale.

Nutrition Notes

• Salmon isn’t just loaded with protein and inflammation-busting omega-3 fatty acids. It’s also one of nature’s best sources of vitamin D, a hard-to-get nutrient that’s key for strong bones and a healthy immune system.
• Dark leafy greens like kale are one of the best foods for healthy blood pressure. Kale delivers a cocktail of blood pressure–lowering potassium, calcium, magnesium and vitamin C. To top it off, it also contains nitrates, natural compounds that relax and dilate your blood vessels.
• White beans are a quick, convenient source of heart-friendly plant protein. They’re also an easy way to score fiber, a nutrient that we could all use more of for optimal heart and digestive health.