Waldorf Salad - ☺♥

I happened to reminisce about my old college days and think about dining hall food. Most foods served there were unremarkable, but one of the few items made well was the Waldorf Salad. I realized that a lot of years have passed since I ate a Waldorf Salad. They don't appear often on restaurant menus and I simply forgot all about that salad. This recipe corrects my weak recall! It is a composite of different ones I found on the Internet, adjusted to suit me. One excellent suggestion I found was to leave the skins on the apple pieces ... and provided you select nice apples that is surely the right thing to do. Speaking of apples, choose types that are fairly crisp, like Gala or Granny Smith, and they will provide the best texture.

What makes a Waldorf Salad really good is the sweetness and mild tartness combined with very different ingredient textures and tastes. They are very complementary, much like the fruit, nut and lettuce combinations found in the more modern Oriental salads. Waldorf Salad is also quite attractive and thus lends itself well to meals when you entertain. I hope you try it.

Ingredients: (4 to 5 servings)

• 1/2 cup of walnut halves, roasted for about 8 minutes at 325ºF, then broken into pieces
• 3 Gala or similar apples - cored and chopped or sliced thinly but do not peel them.
• 1 cup of seedless grapes, washed and sliced in half lengthwise (I use seedless black grapes)
• 2 stalks of celery, diced fine
• 1/3 cup of raisins, plumped slightly for 30 seconds in a small amount of boiling water, then drained and pressed lightly.
• 1 cup of Hellman's® mayonnaise
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice for the dressing
• 2 tbsp. of sugar
• 1/2 tsp. of sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. of white pepper
• 1 head of Boston Bibb lettuce or Romaine lettuce, or Iceberg lettuce, washed, trimmed, leaves separated, patted dry and chilled

Directions:

Set the oven temperature at 325ºF. Roast the walnut halves on a cookie tray for about 8 minutes, then remove them from the oven, dump them from the hot tray onto a plate, and let them cool to room temperature. Break them into about four pieces each. Set them aside.

Core and chop or slice the apples. Put the pieces into a 2 qt. bowl with one quart of water containing 2 tbsp. of fresh lemon juice. Let them soak in that lemon water to avoid having them oxidize and turn brown in color while you are preparing the other ingredients for the salad.

Slice the grapes and finely dice the celery and put the pieces into a bowl. Add the plumped raisin.

Put the sliced grapes, finely diced celery and plumped raisins into a one quart Ziploc® freezer bag and put it into the refrigerator until you are ready to assemble and serve the salad.

Put the thinly sliced or chopped apples into a one quart Ziploc® freezer bag, then add about a cup of the lemon water from the bowl. Seal the bag and put it into the refrigerator until you are ready to assemble and serve the salad.

Whisk together the mayonnaise, salt, pepper, lemon juice and sugar in a small bowl. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dressing mixture until you are ready to assemble and serve the salad.

Put the salad plates you will be using into the refrigerator until assembly/serving time.

When it is time to assemble the salad, drain the water from the bag of sliced/chopped apples and put them into a 2 quart bowl.

Add the bag of grapes, diced celery and raisins to the bowl and mix well.

Add the dressing to the bowl of salad ingredients and mix gently but thoroughly. You now have a bowl of Waldorf salad.

Arrange the lettuce pieces on the individual, chilled salad plates, cutting the leaves in half if you use Romaine lettuce. Optionally, you can choose to make a double layer of lettuce leaves on the salad plates.

Mound the Waldorf salad mixture evenly on top of the lettuce leaves and sprinkle the walnut pieces over the salads.

Serve the salad right away while it is cold. Yummy! Expect compliments.

Any extra Waldorf Salad will remain fresh and delicious if it is put into a sealed container, kept refrigerated and consumed within two days.