Kale Granola Salad Recipe (with Video)

For the salad
1. Rinse and pat dry the kale leaves. Fold each leaf in half lengthwise and trim right down next to the stem to remove the leaves from the stem. Coarsely chop the leaves and add them to the bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle over the salt. (Note: I have a 5 quart mixer - if you have a smaller one, you may have to do this in batches.)
2. With the paddle attachment, start on the lowest speed. After the leaves have settled a bit more into the bowl, increase speed to medium. If bits of leaves start popping out of the bowl, you know you've raised the speed too high. Continue bashing the leaves until they've softened, darkened in color and reduced in size by about half, another 1-3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, depending on the size of your beets, halve them, quarter them or, if they're really big, cut those quarters in half crosswise.
4. Supreme the orange: Slice the top and bottom off the orange. Stand it on one of the cut sides and use a paring knife to slice off all the peel and pith from the top to the bottom. Slice off any remaining bits of peel or pith. Now slice right next to the membranes (the little strings running up and down, dividing the orange into sections) toward the core to release the wedges. Discard the membrane-y remnants of the orange when you're done.
5. Add the beets, orange slices and granola to the bowl with the kale.
For the dressing
1. Using a blender, food processor or stick blender, blend all the dressing ingredients, including a good grinding of black pepper, until mostly smooth (it's okay if there's still little bits of herbs). If you don't have any of those appliances, that's fine! Mince the herbs as finely as you can, add them to rest of the ingredients and blend, mashing up the avocado as you go.
2. Taste the dressing: it should be pretty zippy. If not, add a bit more salt. If you think it's maybe a bit too much salt, I encourage you to use it anyway. Once it's thinned out over all the ingredients, it's not quite as punchy. However, if it's too thick you can blend in a teaspoon or two of water to think it out. If you do this, taste it again to see if the water diluted the flavor and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
To assemble
1. Toss the salad with most of the dressing until everything is coated evenly. Taste a leaf: can you taste all the ingredients? If it's a little bland, sprinkle salt over the whole salad, toss and taste again. Does it need more acid? Drizzle a little more lemon juice or vinegar over the whole salad, toss and taste again.
2. Add more dressing if necessary or serve with the remaining dressing on the side.