Waldorf Salad is a classic fruit and nut salad (or dessert!). A holiday favorite with apples, grapes, celery, and walnuts.
Fun and easy dessert Salads of yesteryear definitely have a fond spot for many people. If you love a classic Waldorf Salad you’ll also love Ambrosia Salad, Grape Salad and Watergate Salad (Pistachio Delight).
Waldorf Salad is a delicious, filling side dish that’s been around since the 1880’s. As far as fruit salads go, this one is one of the absolute easiest, plus you can make your own delicious salad dressing from scratch to go with it. Waldorf salad is great to make for potlucks, weekend get togethers, and weeknight dinners when you’re not all that anxious to cook anything complicated
For a while now, classic and comfort-evoking family recipes have been making a resurgence back into popular cooking — like potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw. Many people find these easy, fuss-free dishes to be delicious and satisfying. That’s why they’re classics and always the most popular recipes!
With red and green ingredients, this recipe screams holidays! Try serving this during big holiday pot luck meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The addition of cut up fruit that can sit without turning brown thanks to the dressing is a great addition to your holiday meal. Make your Classic Roast Turkey with a side of Green Bean Casserole, Baked Mac and Cheese and Easy Mashed Potatoes to serve with this Waldorf Salad. Holidays done! Well, not quite done. Make some Pies too.
Why is it called Waldorf Salad?
A man named Oscar Tschirky, aka Oscar of the Waldorf, was the maître d’ of New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the 1880’s, and he’s credited with inventing the original recipe for Waldorf Salad. This Waldorf Salad recipe is very close to the original.
He also invented Eggs Benedict, which you definitely need to try out. He also popularized Thousand Island salad dressing. He wrote a large cookbook, even though he wasn’t a chef, and his picture is up in the Hotel to this day.
How to Make Waldorf Salad
This is a very easy recipe. Just chop and mix! That’s it! You’re refreshing salad is ready!
- Whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper together in a medium bowl.
- Add in the apples, grapes, celery and walnuts and stir well together.
- Serve chilled.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Waldorf Salad is generally served as an appetizer or a light meal, but with so much fruit in it you can serve it as a dessert as well if you add just a bit of sugar to the mayonnaise dressing and cut back on the black pepper.
You can customize your Waldorf Salad with all sorts of additions. Try stirring in some cranberries, golden raisins, sliced pecans, chopped cauliflower, or even a handful of marshmallows. If you do go the marshmallow route you should wait to mix them in until you’re ready to serve the salad to keep the fruit juice from seeping in and making them soggy and disgusting.
If you want to add some leftover chicken breast to your salad, you absolutely can. Cut the cooked chicken breast (you can use these Baked Chicken Breast or Grilled Chicken Breast recipes) into small bite sized pieces and stir them into the salad until they are thoroughly mixed in. The chicken tastes delicious served chilled, and the natural sweetness of the fruit compliments the flavor really well.
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Key Ingredients in Waldorf Salad
All the ingredients in this recipe can be easily found at your local grocery store, if you don’t already have them in your kitchen.
- Apples: Use fresh, crisp apples. Just about any red apple or green apple varietals is okay.
- Grapes: The grapes used in this recipe are the red ones, but you can use green colored grapes too. They’ll just add a bit more tart! Make sure they are seedless grapes!
- Celery: Make sure to rinse the tall green crunchy stalks before chopping them.
- Walnuts: These wrinkled seeds are incredibly versatile. You should keep a bag of walnuts on hand in your pantry since they go will in a lot of recipes.
- Mayo: Use real mayo. Bonus points if you make your mayo at home!
Can Waldorf Salad be Made Ahead of Time?
Due to the nature of the ingredients, Waldorf Salad should be made and served the same day. If you’re making a bunch for a big party, like a wedding or fundraising gala, you could make your batches the night before. Just make sure to cover them incredibly well with plastic wrap or in an airtight container and keep in fridge until ready to serve.
Don’t freeze Waldorf Salad, though, because the texture will change.
Variations on Waldorf Salad
- Meat: You can add cooked shredded chicken or turkey to your Waldorf Salad. Add a cup of cold shredded poultry and mix. You can add more if desired.
- Sauce: The original recipe utilizes mayonnaise. But you can actually add, sour cream, plain yogurt, or even greek yogurt if preferred. Make your creamy dressing by combining a quarter cup may with a quarter cup cream of your choice.
- Red or Green: You can make it all red with red grapes and red apples. You can also try green tart apples with green grapes.
What to Serve with Waldorf Salad
Waldorf Salad can actually be served on a bed of lettuce as a light meal in and of itself, especially when made with chicken or turkey. Check out some of these complimenting combinations:
- American Meal: You can make a classic American meal from start to finish with an Ultimate Pot Roast, a side of Green Bean Casserole, and this Waldorf Salad as a scrumptious dessert.
- Summertime Vibes: Serve your Waldorf Salad as a side along with sliced watermelon, a yummy Tuna Salad Sandwich, and Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie for a happy and satisfying midsummer meal.
- Winter Formal: Dress up fancy for a special occasion and serve Roasted Garlic Herb Rack of Pork alongside Spinach Gratin leaving the Waldorf Salad at the end to sweeten the deal! Cheers!
How to Store Waldorf Salad
- Serve: This salad is best served chilled, so it is recommend to keep it out of the refrigerator for longer than about 2 hours. It also has mayonnaise in it, which can go bad at room temperature if it’s out too long.
- Store: Your salad will last up to 5 days in the fridge as long as you keep it wrapped up tight in plastic wrap or in a sealable airtight container.
- Freeze: You shouldn’t freeze this salad because of the mayonnaise. The mayo doesn’t thaw out very well because ice crystals form and change the texture when it thaws out.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 3 fuji apples , cored and chopped
- 1 1/2 cups red grapes , halved
- 2 stalks celery , diced
- 3/4 cup walnuts , chopped
Instructions
- Whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.
- Add in the apples, grapes, celery and walnuts and stir well together.
- Serve chilled.
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Served this waldrof salad with our grilled chicken for dinner last night and it was such a remarkable dinner! This salad tasted so good and a crowd pleaser!
Seriously the most refreshing salad I have ever had! My kids picked out all of the walnuts, so next time I will leave those out. Otherwise, A big hit in our house! Thanks for posting!!
This is a staple at our of our holiday dinners! Especially Easter! It’s a delicious classic that fits right in with all our favorite foods.
Yummy my husband really like it. I’m diabetic and I’m glad you had the carbs listed however I didn’t see the amount besides serving size. What is a serving size?
Thank you
The issue is that people will have ingredients of different sizes. Packaged products are weighed and measured at the time of creation which makes their measurements accurate. The only way to accurately know the measurements of meals is to weigh and divide.
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Well, this looks like the perfect weekend meal! Pinning for later! 🙂
Waldorf salads are my favorite! I tried this one yesterday and it was the best recipe I’ve ever tried!
Yum, this was even a hit with my kids, love all the fruit in it!
I love a waldorf salad, and it looks very easy to make! Can’t wait to try it!
Very interesting and delicious. I have nver heard of this before. Yum!
I love your suggestion of adding dried cranberries – it’d put a nice festive twist on this recipe!
I use Yoplait peach yogurt with mayo. I also add grated whole nutmeg. The apples I use are honey crisp.