Waldorf salad - and variations

[ludja]

Silly question perhaps, but what is the 'traditional" way to slice/chop the apples? (i.e. size and shape).

I haven't had a Waldorf salad in years and -- not very often.

[fifi]

Not a silly question at all. I haven't made it in a while but when my mother made it the apples had red skin that she left on. I recall pieces roughly 1/2 inch and maybe a little longer in one direction. I think she sliced the cored apple into sections then did a cross cut. I haven't been able to find the crisp tart apples with a red skin (red delicious seems to be really mealy lately) and have been using Granny Smith. Sometimes I have peeled those and I think I cut them up something like my mother did.

[Dana]

We always had Jonathans - tart and crisp with red skin. My mom quartered them, then cut out the core so they were sort of boat-shaped, then cut slices and diced them, making the longer in one direction. Maybe that's the same as your mom, fifi. I can hardly find Jonathans here in TX, but they were the apple of my Kansas childhood.

[Redsugar]

Pear-Ginger Waldorf Salad

“First learn the classic, then improvise.” ~ Marcel Marceau

From an early restaurant stage of mine (in the late '80s):

2 cups chopped pears (Bosc or d’Anjou)

1 cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped, lightly toasted pecans

½ cup dried currants, plumped

Dressing:

½ cup mayonnaise

1½ fl. oz. lemon juice

¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

Whisk mayo, lemon juice, and ginger; season with salt & freshly ground white pepper. Pour over salad; toss well; serve immediately or refrigerate up to 4 hours.

I enjoy eating the salad with curried-chicken crêpes.

One could also use Apple Mayonnaise as the dressing for a Waldorf:

1 apple – pared, cored, diced

4 fl. oz. chicken stock

1 tsp curry powder

¾ cup mayonnaise

2 fl. oz. heavy cream

zest of ½ clementine

pinch of dried tarragon

In saucepan, combine apple, stock, and curry powder; cover & simmer over low flame until apple has softened, about 2 minutes; let cool. Purée apple mixture with mayo, cream, zest, and herb. Season with salt & white pepper, to taste.

[beccaboo]

I haven't been able to find the crisp tart apples with a red skin (red delicious seems to be really mealy lately) and have been using Granny Smith.

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Honeycrisps aren't tart, but they're very crisp and have a nice red skin. That's what I used when making this waldorf coleslaw last night, which everyone liked really well. The recipe made a ton, so I'm going to finish it up for breakfast.

[ludja]

Thanks all for the info on the apples re: cutting folks!

(the Waldorf Coleslaw salad looks very good)

Edited October 27, 2004 by ludja (log)

[andiesenji]

I cut apples into julienne strips on a mandoline, and the locally grown (and quite large) Fuji seem to hold up quite well for this. The local produce market has them for a third the cost in the supermarkets.

With very crisp apples you can actually put the apple on one of the peeler/slicers, (or the powered "Stripper-type peelers" once made by Salton), only pull the slicing blade out of the way and crank it until it is all the way down to the core. You get long strings of apple which can be quickly chopped for this kind of salad. It works on small jicama also (as well as potatoes).

There is a new battery powered/electrical one called the Rotato which I caught briefly on one of the late night infomercials which looks similar to the old Stripper.

The only reason I mention this is that I am making something similar for our neighborhood Halloween party but the stuff is going to get mixed into a base of green Jello as the kids like the "worm" salad. This is not a molded salad, the Jello is partially set then whipped with other ingredients to make it look rather creepy, then the fruit and other things are folded in. The kids love it, I think it looks awful. I will try to remember to take photos, but it is going to be a very busy day for me.

[ludja]

Damn I'm hungry for Waldorf Salad now!!!

How do you serve it? On a bed of lettuce or by itself. As lunch or as a side for dinner?

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I was wondering this myself... I do like good Waldorf salad but find it difficult to think of what to serve it with... mainly I come up with simply prepared chicken.

As little ms. foodie asks, do you usually ssrve it more by itself as a lunch dish. If as a sidedish, with what?

[andiesenji]

Not a silly question at all. I haven't made it in a while but when my mother made it the apples had red skin that she left on. I recall pieces roughly 1/2 inch and maybe a little longer in one direction. I think she sliced the cored apple into sections then did a cross cut. I haven't been able to find the crisp tart apples with a red skin (red delicious seems to be really mealy lately) and have been using Granny Smith. Sometimes I have peeled those and I think I cut them up something like my mother did.

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Red Delicious was always the traditional apple for Waldorf salad when I was a child and later.

Red Delicioius apples vary a great deal from state to state. I have found that the ones grown in certain areas in Washington state are much more crisp and fine-textured than many others.

The apple-growing area here in this area, in particular the Lucerne Valley grow some of the finest crisp apples such as the Arkansas Black and a variation of the Pink Lady (Veronica), which are exceptional all-purpose apples. The Jonathans are also quite nice.

The apple farm closest to me, which is in the foothills south of Palmdale off the Angeles Forest Highway, grows some true Russets, not Granny Smith, and Northern Spy.

[Gifted Gourmet]

As little ms. foodie asks, do you usually serve it more by itself as a lunch dish.  If as a sidedish, with what?

It is, of course, a fruit(y) salad so I serve it as the salad course with roasted meats and poultry ... the sweetness it contains works well against the more savoury aspects of those dishes ... probably not with anything such as fish, however ...

[andiesenji]

As little ms. foodie asks, do you usually serve it more by itself as a lunch dish.  If as a sidedish, with what?

It is, of course, a fruit(y) salad so I serve it as the salad course with roasted meats and poultry ... the sweetness it contains works well against the more savoury aspects of those dishes ... probably not with anything such as fish, however ...

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Actually it is very good paired with smoked salmon or albacore.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Since more and more interesting varieties of apples have become available lately, I find myself increasingly bored with the tastelessness of Red Delicious, which was mostly all that was available for a very long time .. anyone else feel likewise??

[andiesenji]

I certainly agree. Some of the heirloom varieties that are making a comeback have much more flavor than the Red Delicious. There are GingerGold and HoneyCrisp Gold, derived from the Golden Delicioius that have wonderful texture and great depth of flavor. They have been in very short supply because the hybrid trees are still quite young, but one of the California Heartland reporters predicted that within 5 to 7 years they would be heavy hitters in the all-purpose market.

I got some last year at Bristol Farms Market but had to pay some astronomical price, well over 2.00 per pound, as I recall....

Another one, developed in Canada, now being grown in California is the Ambrosia, also one with excellent texture for both eating and cooking and an amazing flavor as well as an aroma that is very flowery, almost like apple perfume.

I have been disappointed in the Cameo, which originally were very flavorful but recent crops have been less that satisfactory.

The new crop of Braeburn are better than last year.

[Jaymes]

So here we are in the middle of Waldorf Salad Season for many of us.

And, as this thread is pretty old, and we've had a lot of newcomers since then, thought I'd drag it back up and see if there are any new thoughts, ideas, suggestions.

[JayBassin]

Unpeeled red apples---staymens are my favorites (tart-sweet). Dressing is half mayo and half sour cream. Lemon juice, honey or brown sugar, halved red seedless grapes, toasted unsweetened grated coconut. Also finely sliced celery and toasted walnuts.

[fifi]

Thanks for bumping this up. I just bought some lovely pecans and Granny Smith apples for other purposes but I know where some will go.

Moderators note: This is a merge of two topics.

[JEL]

i'm having jello flashbacks along with the waldorf salad one's..........

makes me want to call my old girlfriend and get out the 8-tracks.........

[Megan Blocker]

Two of my closest friends were married at the Waldorf in October, and the last course at dinner was an updated Waldorf salad! It was very good, and I'm not a huge fan of savory dishes with apples...

[Jaymes]

Holidays on the way and I'm thinking of Waldorf Salad again.

Thought I'd bump this up to see if there are any new and interesting variations.

[Katie Meadow]

What ingredients define Waldorf Salad, anyway? Is it fruits with mayo? I never grew up with Waldorf Salad, so I don't really know what it is.

I've been eating a lot this lately: Granny Smiths (really any good tart crisp apple will do), chopped walnuts and either celery or fennel, thinly sliced. The dressing is dijon plus a little honey, lemon juice and a small amount of olive oil, salt. No mayo. It's refreshing and I pretty much always have all the ingredients on hand. I like it as a side for grilled chicken or spicy Red Beans 'n' Rice.

[Jaymes]

What ingredients define Waldorf Salad, anyway? Is it fruits with mayo? I never grew up with Waldorf Salad, so I don't really know what it is.

I've been eating a lot this lately: Granny Smiths (really any good tart crisp apple will do), chopped walnuts and either celery or fennel, thinly sliced. The dressing is dijon plus a little honey, lemon juice and a small amount of olive oil, salt. No mayo. It's refreshing and I pretty much always have all the ingredients on hand. I like it as a side for grilled chicken or spicy Red Beans 'n' Rice.

With the exception that there's no mayo at all, I'd call this pretty much a classic Waldorf: apples, walnuts, celery.

[Lisa Shock]

My family always made the dressing with ½ sour cream, ½ mayo, lemon juice and sugar.

We'd try to get at least two types of apple and leave the skin on, so there would be several colors. Pears would be added, if we had them, along with celery, grapes (try for a couple colors there, too) and walnuts.

Nothing fancy, just flavors that worked and a nutritious dish.

[kayb]

Really not a Waldorf salad, in that it doesn't have either apples OR nuts OR celery, but I had some leftover ambrosia (pineapple, mandarin orange segments, coconut, in their own juice) and decided I wanted a creamy tang to it...added a couple of tablespoons of Hellman's. It was a most serviceable lunch.

I tend to be a Waldorf minimalist -- apples, nuts, mayo. I don't even add celery. Arkansas Black apples are in season now, and they're excellent, especially mixed with Granny Smiths.

[Okanagancook]

We have two Ambrosia trees on our property and they are indeed a lovely apple. One nice thing is that they don't go brown very quickly at all....perfect for salads.

[LizD518]

Time for the yearly thread-bump...

I was feeling like a light lunch today and made myself a Waldorf Salad using a modified version of the recipe in The Waldorf-Astoria Cookbook. This is my version:

Two apples (one Granny Smith, one Braeburn), skin-on, julienned

About 1/2 cup julienned celeraic

Walnuts - "candied" using the egg-white method, with brown sugar, a bit of cinnamon & cayenne & salt

Dressing:

1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

lemon juice (didn't have any, used tamrind this time!!)

2 T walnut oil

1/8 tsp truffle oil (recipe uses chopped truffles - ha!) - I may leave this out next time, too strong

Toss apples, celeraic and chopped walnuts with dressing, garnish with more walnuts and a bit of flat-leaf parsley (recipe calls for celery leaves).

This was a perfect light lunch, although I don't love the truffle oil - even the small drop I used had a big presence. Maybe if I paired this with a grilled chicken breast or something to bulk up the meal it would balance out that truffle for me.

Edited October 12, 2010 by LizD518 (log)