A Waldorf salad is perfect as a side dish or a light main course in Bahrain’s hot summer weather.
This simple, refreshing and ever-popular salad was named for the prestigious Waldorf hotel in New York City. It was created in March 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss maître d'hôtel, for a charity ball given in honour of the St. Mary's Hospital for Children .
The original recipe comprised just red-skinned apples, celery, mayonnaise and lettuce; other ingredients like seedless red grapes and toasted walnuts were added later.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 5 Tbsp mayonnaise
- The zest of ½ a lemon
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 cup halved red grapes
- 1 cup apples chopped into 2-cm pieces (two apples)
- 1 cup celery sliced into 1-cm pieces
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup walnuts, toasted
- Boston lettuce cups for serving
- Optional: chopped parsley for garnish.
Instructions
1. To toast the nuts: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool and break the nuts up into smaller pieces.
2. Halve, core, and cut the apples into bite-sized pieces, leaving the skin intact. Slice the celery into 1-cm pieces and cut the grapes in half.
3. Put the apples, celery and grapes into a bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice. The lemon juice helps to keep the apples from browning so it’s important to toss the apples in the dressing as soon as they’re cut so that they make contact with the acid in the lemon juice.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise and the lemon zest, then fold the apples, celery and grapes gently into the mayonnaise until just combined. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Spoon the mixture into the lettuce cups and top with the toasted walnuts and parsley (optional.)
Variations
Dressing: While mayonnaise is the traditional base for the dressing, plain yogurt, either whole milk or reduced fat, is also a great choice. If you are using yoghurt, then it is a good idea to add 1 tsp of honey to offset the added tartness of the yogurt.
Apples: You can use one red-skinned apple and one green-skinned apple.
Dried Fruit: Dried cranberries, raisins or chopped dates are a great addition to this salad.
Nuts: You can also use pecans or almonds instead of walnuts if you prefer.
Lettuce: you can serve the salad on a bed of any variety of lettuce but Boston (or butter) lettuce makes nice lettuce cups into which you can spoon the salad.
You can make the salad beforehand and keep it in the fridge in a tighly sealed container, adding the toasted nuts and the lettuce when you serve it.
