Waldorf salad: apple, celery and walnuts from a New York hotel
Created in the 1890s at the Waldorf hotel in New York and usually credited to its maître d’hôtel, Oscar Tschirky. Originally it was just apple, celery and mayonnaise; today's classic is apple, celery, walnuts, grapes and a light dressing. Its whole value lies in the contrast of textures — firm apple, juicy celery, brittle nut. Let the apple brown or the celery go limp and the salad loses its point. Hence two small operations: lemon water for the apples and iced water for the celery.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Chopping 20 min
- Dressing 5 min
- Chilling 25 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneToast the walnuts
Toast the walnuts in a dry pan 4–5 minutes over medium heat, shaking, until they smell nutty. Cool them and break them with your fingers, not a knife. Toasting brings out a deeper, fuller flavour raw walnuts simply do not have.
Ingredients: 3 pcs apples · 4 pcs celery · 100 g walnuts · 150 g seedless grapes · 6 pcs lettuce
TipCool them on a cold plate, not in the pan. In a hot pan they keep toasting and easily turn bitter.
A few minutes, until they smell nuttyCut the apples into lemon water
Fill a bowl with cold water and the juice of half a lemon. Cut the apples into 1.5 cm cubes, skin on (the skin holds their shape and adds colour), dropping them straight into the acidulated water. The acid blocks the enzyme that browns the flesh within minutes of meeting air.
Ingredients: 3 pcs apples · 4 pcs celery · 100 g walnuts · 150 g seedless grapes · 6 pcs lettuce
TipMealy apples collapse in the dressing. Choose a firm, tart variety — this salad should be crunchy, not soft.
Straight into lemon water, skin onSlice the celery and chill it
Wash the celery, strip the coarse strings with a peeler and cut it into thin diagonal slices. Drop it into iced water for 10 minutes — the stalks take up water and turn noticeably crisper. Then dry them.
TipStrings left on stay in the mouth like thread and ruin the pleasure of it. Two passes of a peeler down the outside of each stalk is enough.
Strings stripped, sliced on the diagonalMix the dressing
Stir the mayonnaise with the yogurt, the juice of the other half lemon, honey, salt and pepper. It should be loose and clearly tangy — apple and celery are sweetish and watery, so with a thick, mild dressing the whole thing turns bland.
Ingredients: 100 g mayonnaise · 100 g thick natural yogurt · 1 pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp honey · ½ tsp salt · ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
Loose and sharp, not thick and sweetCombine and chill
Drain the apples and dry them. In a bowl combine the apples, celery, halved grapes and half the walnuts, add the dressing and fold. Chill 25 minutes. Serve on lettuce leaves, scattered with the remaining walnuts.
Ingredients: 3 pcs apples · 4 pcs celery · 100 g walnuts · 150 g seedless grapes · 6 pcs lettuce
Half the walnuts inside, half on top
Before you start
As a main course
Add cubes of cooked chicken or turkey and serve in larger portions. In the US it is a popular way to use up leftover roast turkey after the holidays.
Instead of grapes
Raisins soaked 10 minutes in hot tea, fresh pear, or dried cranberries. All play the same role: a sweet, soft counterpoint to the crisp celery.
Don't make it ahead
A Waldorf is at its best in the first hour. After a night in the fridge the celery goes limp and the walnuts soften — if you must prepare ahead, mix it without the nuts and add them at the table.
Where the name comes from
The original Waldorf hotel recipe contained no nuts at all: only apple, celery and mayonnaise. Walnuts appeared in cookbooks later, in the first decades of the 20th century, and grapes later still — and they are what made it the classic we know today.
