Waldorf Salad

Secret Recipe Club is fast approaching.  We made my recipe Friday night.  No, I'm not going to jump the gun and show you!  But, I will tell you about the lovely salad we had alongside our entree...

I don't know about your grocery store, but ours tend to have bargain book bins.  After a great deal of hunting, I sometimes find a cookbook or two that I just can't live without.  My family room is littered with cookbooks I just couldn't live without.  I have to live to at least 550 to even make a dent in all the recipes I'd like to try.  Off the top of my head I can't tell you which recipe triggered my picking up Jamie's America.  It's Jamie Oliver's twists on American favorites.  Like a NY cheesecake with a meringue topping.  I know.  Go figure.  Then, I got to Waldorf Salad My Way.  Now, I've never been much of a fan of Waldorf Salad.  It's just too cloying for my taste.  Individually, I love apples and grapes and celery and nuts.  But, not gummed up with sweetened mayo.  Bleech. 

Thursday evening, we went to a retirement party for one of my favorite attorneys.  He's a great guy and truly exceptional at his specialty.  I was honored to be among those invited to wish him a wonderful retirement.  After the cocktail party we headed to the store to get everything we needed to make my Secret Recipe Club recipe.  In addition I bought a bunch of asparagus and a rotisserie chicken.  I figured that'd take care of us until Saturday when I'd had an opportunity to make out a menu. 

Friday, I had a massage.  Margi worked her fingers to the bone trying to get me to a semi-normal range of motion.  Normally, after a massage I just want to curl up in a chair and chill. Not Friday. I was raring to go. And, the Waldorf Salad had been on my mind all day. I'd had a crispy, sweet, tart Gala apple earlier in the week and it had totally hit the spot. Fine, I'd go ahead and make the menu for the week and head to the store Friday evening.  Best part about that?  Connie vacuumed the house while I went to the grocery.  I'll  take that trade-off any day. 

Another 9pm dinner.  But, I've finally found a Waldorf salad that I LOVE!  And the fabulous dressing will go with SO many salads.  BTW - when you read the ingredients I've copied them mostly verbatim from Jamie's recipe.  I love how he phrases the list.  Here's how you put it together:

Waldorf Salad My Way

Ingredients:

4 large handfuls of interesting green salad leaves, washed and spun dry
2 seedless red or green grapes, halved
3 medium celery stalks, trimmed and sliced
2 large handfuls walnuts, roughly crumbled
a small bunch of Italian parsley, chopped
1 red apple (I used Gala,) diced
6 oz blue cheese (I used about 2 oz)

for the dressing:
1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon natural yogurt (I used Greek)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Toast the walnuts. 

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. 

Toss the grapes, celery, walnuts, parsley and apple with the dressing. 

You can either toss the greens with the other ingredients or mound the apple mixture on top of the greens.  Crumble the blue cheese over the salad and drizzle with a bit more extra virgin olive oil.

adapted from Jamie's America