Waldorf salad
Instructions
Tips
Covering cut apples with either an acidic liquid like lemon juice or something like crème fraiche, mayonnaise, or whipped cream will prevent the oxidisation process that turns them brown and soft. Therefore, adding green apple cubes to the dressing and making sure that the entire surface of the cubes is covered is a very important step in the process of making this popular side dish.
Tips
It is important to mix the apples and dressing gently to avoid bruising the Granny Smith apples as this may also soften them and make them less crispy. A flexible rubber spatula or so-called 'spoontula', a curved spoon-like spatula, will make this folding process incredibly easy.
Questions about Waldorf salad
With an easy Waldorf salad recipe like ours, making a delightful salad with a creamy dressing and plenty of crispiness is incredibly simple. Below you can learn more about the dish by reading answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Ingredients
Waldorf salad:
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Sour cream, 18% or 38%
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350 ml |
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Sugar
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1 tbsp |
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Coarse salt
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¼ tsp |
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Green apples, for instance, Granny Smith (approx. 250 g)
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2 |
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Celery sticks, cut into thin slices
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4 |
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Seedless green grapes, cut in half
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300 g |
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Walnuts, coarsely chopped
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50 g |
Garnish:
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Celery leaves
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Walnuts
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Grapes
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Waldorf salad with apples and grapes
Our Waldorf salad recipe allows you to prepare a decorative side dish with plenty of different nuances of green. In our classic recipe, fresh Granny Smith apples, green grapes, and celery make up this delicious salad mix that has plenty of bite.
The sweet and tangy flavours they provide are tied together by the velvety sour cream dressing that covers the bite-sized fruits and vegetables and helps them stay fresh. Garnished with celery leaves, this refreshing dish is sure to look beautiful next to many different main courses.
Serve with an easy dressing and sprinkle with walnuts
With pieces of walnuts incorporated into the salad and used to garnish it as well, this classic side dish has plenty of crunch on top of the crispiness of the apples and celery. A Waldorf salad with a sour cream dressing is also wonderfully creamy though with grapes to soften the texture a bit.
Depending on whether you would like your dressing for Waldorf salad to be refreshing as well as creamy or lean more heavily into its natural richness, you can choose either sour cream 18% or 38%. You can also use a mix of the two to get the best of both worlds with this tasty, slightly sweet dressing.
A classic salad with crunchy textures
A traditional Waldorf salad with grapes, celery, apples, and walnuts is deliciously crunchy. Though all the ingredients for Waldorf salad have crispy textures, they are different enough that eating it is far from a one-note experience. From the chewy, slightly soft grapes and crisp Granny Smith apples to the slices of leafy celery, each bite of the dish is packed with fresh flavours and various irresistible textures.
If you are wondering what to serve with a Waldorf salad in case you decide to serve it as a side dish rather than a light meal or starter, some options from our vast collection of recipes include favourites like oven-fried chicken with lemon, garlic, and rosemary, pork tenderloin with bacon and thyme, or a decadent chateaubriand, depending on what type of meat your prefer.
Make a chicken Waldorf salad
Experiment with the dish by adding meat in addition to the traditional ingredients in the salad. Mild-tasting chicken breast is a good fit for the salad's fresh and crunchy selection of fruits and vegetables.
Either cut the chicken breast into bite-size pieces or use two forks to shred the meat as you would pulled pork to fold the chicken more easily into the dish. A chicken Waldorf salad is irresistible, combining a family favourite type of meat and a creamy, crispy, flavourful salad.
If you want to experiment further with the ingredients for this classic dish or the chicken variation, there are other things to try. For instance, use pecans in place of walnuts and make the salad more colourful and less monochrome in its look by using blue grapes and experimenting with red apples like Pink Lady which will still add some tartness to the dish.
