Waldorf Salad

Hello from down under!  I’m in the land of OZ and having a great trip visiting my son.  We spent a couple days in Sydney, then Yulara to see the beautiful Uluru and Kata Tjuta.  Now were off to Tasmania.  I’m posting a few photos on Instagram along the way, hope you can follow along!  In the meantime, check out this Waldorf Salad I made before I left on my trip.  It’s delicious!

Waldorf Salad is a popular salad that has been around for years.  In our family we seemed to always eat it in the fall for some reason.  Maybe because it’s apple season!  Or maybe because it was a standard side dish at our Thanksgiving table every year when I was growing up.  Doesn’t matter the time of year, it’s delicious any time, the ingredients are readily available year round. The Waldorf Salad my mom always made was laden with mayonnaise. I come from a family that LOVES their mayonnaise! I think she also added a few other ingredients that weren’t standard Waldorf Salad fare, but I can’t really remember for the life of me what at the moment!  I liked her version okay, but I thought I’d try to lighten it up a bit with a more exciting dressing than just mixing everything up with a big ol’ glop of mayo.  She also cut the apples into chunks so I thought I’d change that up a bit too.

The first go around I used apples that were “spiralized” with my spiral slicer.  I love using my spiral slicer.  It’s just such a fun twist and for some reason I feel like I’m eating something more satisfying. Maybe it has something to do with it being noodle-like?

For the second version of this Waldorf Salad,  I sliced the apples and put them on a bed of greens.  This version is more of a traditional salad.  The ingredients are scattered on top of the bed of lettuce and then drizzled with some dressing.  This version uses less apples than the spiral version.  I only used a few slices of apples vs. a whole apple in the spiral version.

In addition to apples, the salad has grapes, celery and candied walnuts.  It’s fine to use plain walnuts, but I really like candied walnuts.  The dressing is still mayonnaise based, but is dolled up a bit with some honey, apple cider, dijon and cinnamon.  Yummm!

Whichever way you decide to make this Waldorf Salad you won’t be disappointed.  Both are equally delicious and I thought you might enjoy being shown a basic recipe prepared two ways.

Waldorf Salad

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Ingredients

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• 2 Apples (cored and sliced or made into spirals with a spiral slicer)
• 20 Grapes, sliced in half
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 C. candied walnuts (purchased or make your own, recipe below)
• Salad greens of your choice (I used arugula and romaine. Spinach would be good)

For the dressing:

• 1/4 C. good mayonnaise
• 2 Tbls. honey
• 2 Tbls. apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard
• squeeze of lemon juice
• one dash cinnamon
• pinch of salt & pepper

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Instructions

1. Combine dressing ingredients and set aside in refrigerator until ready to serve.
2. Lay a bed of salad greens on plate or salad bowl. Top with either apple slices or spiraled apples, some grapes, celery and candied walnuts. Drizzle dressing over top.
3. To make candied walnuts:
4. Combine 1/4 C. sugar and 1 Tbls. butter in saucepan. Add 1 C. walnut halves and stir continuously while heating the butter and melting the sugar. Once the walnuts are coated with with sugary syrup, transfer to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and separate walnuts. Once cooled. break apart.