Waldorf salad
Description
A Waldorf salad is delicious and easy to prepare. Perfect for one of those important meals or special occasions where you are trying your best.
Ingredients
Instructions
Mix apple, celery and mayonnaise in a bowl; season with salt and cayenne.
When you are ready to serve, add the chopped nuts and mix.
Lay the lettuce on a salad bowl or individual ones. Arrange the apple, nut and celery mix on top. Serve.
A Waldorf salad is a salad with apple, nuts, celery and a mayonnaise, or a mayonnaise based dressing. This salad was the conception of Oscar Tschirky, maitre d’hôtel at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
Oscar Tschirky was known as “Oscar of the Waldorf” and despite not being a chef, he was the author of “The Cookbook by Oscar of the Waldorf” or he compiled this large recipe collection. The first reference to Waldorf salad was made in this cookbook in 1896. Oscar of the Waldorf was also the inventor of Veal Oscar and Eggs Benedict and aided to make the “thousand islands dressing” widely popular.
Notes
Chill the ingredients before preparing the salad.
You can prepare the apple, celery and mayonnaise mix and keep it chilled in the fridge, adding the nuts just before serving –Nuts lose crispness if let to stand for long in the mayonnaise dressing.
Waldorf salad variations
Mix green and red apples for effect.
Raisins go well with this salad, add ½ cup (50 g) of raisins for more flavor. You can add to the apple and celery mix or add them at the same time you add the nuts.
Grated carrots are an alternative to celery. Use hazelnuts instead of walnuts.
Mayonnaise is the traditional dressing but if you don’t have it, have allergy problems or you would like a little less fat, prepare a cream cheese dressing by mixing ½ cup (100 g) cream cheese with 2 Tbs (30 ml) milk and whisking vigorously until soft and creamy. Season to your taste, you’ll probably need less salt as the cream cheese already has some.
Add 16-20 red grapes, washed, halved and pips removed, instead of raisins.