Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad is a delicious classic fruit and nut salad (or dessert!) served over lettuce that’s a holiday favorite with apples, grapes celery and walnuts.

Fun and easy dessert salads of yester-year definitely have a fond spot in my heart. You’re familiar with them if you read this site as we’ve already covered 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.

The Perfect Holiday Side Dish

This recipe may scream HOLIDAYS!!!! to you as much as it does to me, we like to serve this during big holiday pot luck meals during 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. 🙂

Is Waldorf Salad a side or a dessert?

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.

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, and popularized Thousand Island salad dressing. He wrote a large cookbook, even though he wasn’t a chef, and his picture is up in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to this day.

More Classic Salad Recipes:

• Classic Chicken Salad: This is the perfect salad to serve over lettuce or in sandwiches.
• Classic Tuna Salad: THE recipe our moms made.
• Curry Chicken Salad: This is just sweet enough but not too sweet.
• Egg Salad: I promise this is the best Egg Salad Recipe ever.

HOW TO MAKE WALDORF SALAD

• 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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VARIATIONS ON WALDORF SALAD

• Add ins: 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.
• Waldorf Chicken Salad: If you want to add some leftover chicken breast to your salad, you absolutely can. Cut the cooked chicken breast (you can use my 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.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH WALDORF SALAD

Make a classic meal from start to finish with an Ultimate Pot Roast, Green Bean Casserole and this Waldorf Salad for dessert.

HOW LONG IS WALDORF SALAD GOOD?

• Serve: This salad is best served chilled, so I wouldn’t recommend keeping 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 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.

5 from 6 votes

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Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad is a delicious classic side (or dessert!) that is a holiday favorite made with apples, grapes celery and crunchy walnuts in just 10 minutes.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword easy fruit salad, fruit salad, Grape Salad, grapes, Waldorf Salad

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 8 Servings

Calories 231 kcal

Author Sabrina Snyder

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

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.
2. Add in the apples, grapes, celery and walnuts and stir well together.
3. Serve chilled.

Nutrition Facts

Waldorf Salad

Amount Per Serving

Calories 231 Calories from Fat 162

% Daily Value*

Fat 18g28%

Saturated Fat 2g13%

Cholesterol 6mg2%

Sodium 249mg11%

Potassium 201mg6%

Carbohydrates 17g6%

Fiber 3g13%

Sugar 13g14%

Protein 2g4%

Vitamin A 110IU2%

Vitamin C 5mg6%

Calcium 22mg2%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.