Trader Joe's A Complete Salad Kale and Hemp Seeds

The pros: Trader Joe's A Complete Salad Kale and Hemp Seeds is a fresh and tasty combination of flavors

The cons: This suffers from the same problem that most other salad mixes suffer from at Trader Joe's: there just isn't enough mix ins or dressing to go around. Unless you like your salad very lightly dressed.

The verdict:  It's still January and I'm pretty sure it is the month where I am most likely to consume the greatest number of salads. I'll credit that to the New Years Resolution idea. Don't get me wrong I do love a good salad. With an added protein, this could be a meal. Now, let me clarify that statement. As long as you subdivide the leafy items in this bag you'll have an awesome salad.

Overall, this had nice flavor. The lemon dressing was bright both in terms of color and in flavor. The mix ins of dates, almonds, hemp seeds, and parmesan cheese made for a really great tasting salad that also had relatively good nutrition as well. So why would I write a lukewarm review on this?

Well, it is a bit pricey at $4.99. Not outrageous, but if you have a modest pantry and a few refrigerated items, you too can come up with a less expensive salad. The price wasn't quite the biggest flaw on this. For me, it was the insufficient amount of mix ins.

Yes, I always photograph what I eat. It helps the consumer make the right decision. I'm in a small household of two people. My husband and I are on opposite schedules. I would never dress a salad for two and hope he will eat in 12 or so hours later. A salad is best right when it is made. So I portioned out three servings of the leafy stuff. They would fit into three white bowls like the one I had pictured.

However, while I would have had greens for three generous sized dinner salads, I would only have enough dressing, parmesan and almonds for two, but dates for only one salad. The one salad was very tasty. But the other two could have used improvements in the way of having enough toppings. So while I really liked this product, it just lacked the ability to make all the salads well dressed and with all the fixings I would normally enjoy. Otherwise, you might find yourself raiding the pantry to fill the gaps.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The bag of Trader Joe's A Complete Salad Kale and Hemp Seeds:

The nutritional information and the ingredients:

How Trader Joe's describes this:

A slightly misleading picture. This was ⅓ of the kale with all of the dates, half the lemon dressing, and half the almonds, but all the dates. Yes, there was enough kale left behind to fill a gallon sized kitchen bag:

A closer look at the salad:

Would I buy this again? No, I would not buy Trader Joe's A Complete Salad Kale and Hemp Seeds again. It tasted fine, but there just wasn't enough fixings to justify the price.

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe's for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!