This all-American fruit-nut salad is served on a bed of lettuce as an appetizer or a light meal. It was first served at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC in 1893, and is made with apples, celery, grapes, and walnuts, and a plant-based mayonnaise dressing.
Waldorf Salad
- Prep Time: 20 mins.
- Cook Time: 0 mins.
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 (makes about 6 cups) 1x
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped/torn lettuce, or leaves (see Step 1)
- 2 cored and chopped apples, unpeeled
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 cup red seedless grapes, halved or quartered
- 1 oz. coarsely chopped walnuts (about ½ cup)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ to ½ cup Tofu Mayo
Instructions
- Waldorf salad can be served two ways: on top of whole lettuce leaves, or you can add the chopped or torn lettuce in with everything else, to be tossed with the Tofu Mayo dressing. See photos above and below to see both options.
- If you're tossing your chopped/torn lettuce with the other ingredients, add it to a large bowl with the apple, celery, grapes, nuts, and lemon juice. Toss.
- Stir in a ¼ to ½ cup of the Tofu Mayo dressing, until all the ingredients are coated. Serve with freshly ground black pepper if desired.
Notes
Types of apples to use: Crisp, firm apples are best for this recipe: Granny Smith, Fuji, honey crisp, and gala all work well.
Types of lettuce to use: Most Waldorf salads use butter or bibb lettuce, but any type of lettuce would work. Recipes also vary in how they use the lettuce: some toss it in with all the other ingredients, and others use it as a “bed of lettuce” for the salad to be spooned on top of, as noted in Step 1.
Instead of grapes: If you can’t find grapes, you can use raisins. You could also add: pineapple, chopped dates, red onion, or sliced radish. If you didn’t have walnuts (which are very traditional), I think pistachios, pecans, or sunflower seeds would also be great.
Yogurt instead of mayonnaise: Some people like their Waldorf salad made with yogurt, instead of mayo, so feel free to substitute with a healthy plant-based (or homemade) yogurt if you like.
Above: The prepped apples, grapes and celery
Above: The prepped lettuce, walnuts and Tofu Mayo
Above: This is the salad with the lettuce mixed in with everything else. The image at the very top of this post shows the salad without the lettuce mixed in, but under the salad as leaves.
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