The original Waldorf salad dates back to the late nineteenth century (1893!), served up at a charity ball in honor of St. Mary’s Hospital for Children. The salad consisted mainly of a simple combination of fresh apples, celery, and mayonnaise.
The Waldorf-inspired salad recipe below is served atop a bed of shredded Romaine lettuce, along with some finely-sliced fresh apple, pickled red grapes, toasted walnuts, and plumped raisins.
The following recipe makes one incredibly large salad, and can be scaled up or down.
Loaded Waldorf-Inspired Salad
The original Waldorf salad dates back to the late nineteenth century (1893!), served up at a charity ball in honor of St. Mary's Hospital for Children. The salad consisted mainly of a simple combination of fresh apples, celery, and mayonnaise.The Waldorf-inspired salad recipe below is served atop a bed of shredded Romaine lettuce, along with some finely-sliced fresh apple, pickled red grapes, toasted walnuts, and plumped raisins.The following recipe makes one incredibly large salad, and can be scaled up or down.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- 2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 20 dried raisins
- ¼ cup red seedless grapes (cut in half)
- 1 Honeycrisp apple (peeled, cored and cut into quarters and finely-sliced)
- 1 stalk celery (cut small dice)
- 2 Tbsp prepared mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp honey
- ¼ cup walnuts (toasted and roughly chopped)
- 1.5 cups very finely-shredded Romaine lettuce
- A few grinds of fresh black pepper
Instructions
- In a small sauce pot, combine the white wine vinegar, water, white granulated sugar, and salt.
- Bring up to a simmer, or until the white sugar completely dissolves into the liquid.
- Remove the liquid from the heat, and add the dried raisins.
- Allow the dried raisins to sit in the liquid for roughly five minutes, and then add the halved seedless grapes.
- Set the pickled raisins and grapes aside for later, for when you are ready to assemble your salad.
- In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, mix together ¾ of the sliced apple with the diced celery, mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, and honey.
- Stir the ingredients until they are fully combined.
- Finely slice the Romaine lettuce, and arrange the shredded lettuce at the bottom of a large bowl.
- Top the shredded lettuce with the prepared apple and celery mixture that you made earlier.
- Drain the raisins and halved grapes from the liquid they were sitting in.
- Top the salad with the chopped walnuts, drained raisins, and halved grapes.
- Add the remaining finely-sliced apples, from the ¼ apple that you have leftover.
- Top with a few grinds of fresh black pepper.
- You could serve with some freshly-grated parmesan cheese on top, if you wanted, or just leave it like this.
Notes
While all of the individual components can be made fresh, this salad is best assembled right before serving.