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  • Serves 6
  • Makes 1
  • 15 minutes
  • Difficulty Easy
  • 8 Ingredients
February 17, 2012

140 Comments

Waldorf Salad fans rejoice!

This Waldorf Salad Recipe brings you all the deliciousness of a traditional Waldorf Salad only with a lightness your heart will thank you for!

Who remembers the gluggy, gluey Waldorf Salads from the 1970s? Where the recipe literally called for a whole jar of mayonnaise dumped over chunks of apple and celery.  OMG, it was like munching through a weird fat smothered fruit plate.  And god forbid if there were sultanas in there too!

According to The Kitchen Project, the Waldorf Salad was originally created in 1896 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.  It wasn’t a creation made by a chef but rather the dining room manager Oscar Tschirky. Apparently it was an instant success.  It seemed the recipe hasn’t changed much since then given our memories are that of a Waldorf Salad that contained just apples, celery and mayonnaise.

Fear not!  This recipe is nothing like that.

In fact, this Waldorf Salad was born on a day we were having a Sunday lunch that included a lovely big roll of Roast Pork.  There was going to be loads of pork crackling and that would be quite enough fat for the family! So rather than produce apple sauce and then a salad, we decided to combine the two.

The traditional Waldorf Salad ingredients are still all included – we’ve just lightened it up and added a little twist or two.  

The great thing about this recipe is that you can add and subtract as much as you like.  This salad made enough for 6 adults with a little left over for the kids who are old enough to eat salad.

Do you have a favourite salad?  Or a new take on an old recipe?  Do share – we love to hear from other mums.


Ingredients (serves 6 | makes 1 Large Salad)

  • 4 large Pink Lady Apples (or any red apples)
  • 4 large Granny Smith Apples (or any green apples)
  • 2 - 3 cups Baby Spinach Leaves
  • 1 large Lemon
  • 2 - 3 tbsps Whole Egg Mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup Crushed Walnuts
  • 1 small Spanish Onion
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  1. In a large bowl (not the bowl or platter you’ll use to serve), combine the mayonnaise, lemon or lime juice and season to taste. Give this a good mix to create a drizzly dressing. The lightnesss of this salad comes from using enough lemon juice to ‘cut’ the fattiness and heaviness of the mayonnaise. You may want to fiddle a bit to get it to a consistency you’re happy with.
  2. Finely slice the Spanish Onion and drop into the dressing.
  3. Finely slice one apple at a time and drop into the dressing and coat the slices in the dressing. This will ensure the apples don’t discolour while you cut the other apples.
  4. Just before you are ready to serve, toss through the spinach leaves and half the walnuts and then arrange on your serving platter.
  5. Sprinkle the remaining walnuts over as the finishing touch.

Notes

This salad teams up beautifully with any pork dishes but is also just as happy as one of the salads at any barbecue.   A note to remember is that the onions and apples will stay crisp for quite a while once in the dressing but the spinach leaves will start to wilt once they are ‘dressed’.  So best to put the salad together at the last minute to ensure maximum crunch … which is what the Waldorf Salad is so famous for!

Here's a few more classic salads you might like to try:
  • When I was working in the city years ago there was a cafe nearby that served the most delicious Waldorf Salad. I haven’t had one in years so will try this.

    Reply

  • Yum, this looks so good!

    Reply

  • Yum. This looks amazing and super healthy! I’ll be adding this to my regular salads.

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  • i’ve never been a fan of walnuts but they are a match made with this salad

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  • Wonder how it would go without adding the lemon because I have a high allergy to all citrus fruits

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  • My kids would like it….as its with apple

    Reply

  • I have never had this type of salad before but I’d be interested to try it

    Reply

  • Now this is a salad I never understood. But, now that my tastes have changed/matured I’m happy to try it for the crunch and sweetness of the apple and crunch of the nuts.

    Reply

  • I haven’t had a Waldorf Salad in YEARS! I never used Mayo, opting for Greek yoghurt instead and only enough to just coat the ingredients (rather than swimming in mayonnaise). This recipe sounds lovely and I’d probably still use Greek yoghurt but I like the sound of sharp lime juice in the dressing, the addition of spinach and onion sound nice too. I’m looking forward to trying it when we next have a bbq! Thanks ????

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  • OH yum ! It always reminds me of that episode of Fawlty Towers :)

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  • Wow, originally a whole jar!

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  • Great idea to use apples in a salad, looks refreshingly delicious.

    Reply

  • I’ve heard so much about the Waldorf salad for so many years and still haven’t made one

    Reply

  • That salad looks o yummy

    Reply

  • nice when you want a really special salad. thanks

    Reply

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