Come-on Fall! (Tart and Tasty Waldorf Salad)

Ready to balance any rich holiday meal, my version
of Waldorf Salad is heavy on the lemon, and includes
pecans, dried cranberries and raisins. Yummy.

I've got a deadline for the November issue of Southerly Magazine coming up, so Thanksgiving is has been on my mind.  It was nice and cool today so I thought I'd get ahead of the game and test / photograph a Billings-Barnett family favorite, Waldorf Salad.

Waldorf Salad has been a Thanksgiving staple for my family since the “Cranberry Scare of 1959,” when just days before our favorite food-based holiday the US cranberry crop was reportedly unsafe. In the end, no one got sick, but families all over the country had to come up with a different side to replace their beloved cranberry sauce. For my family, a crisp and tart Waldorf salad made the cut. And it’s been on the table on the fourth Thursday of November ever since. 

I’ve fiddled with this quite a bit since taking over the reins for Thanksgiving years ago. The original featured walnuts and raisins. Since moving to North Carolina, I’ve swapped for pecans for the walnuts, added dried cranberries and, because I’m homesick for my lemon tree in SoCal, a pumped up the citrus flavor with a healthy dose of lemon zest.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Tasty and Tart Waldorf Salad

Serves 8

• 4 large apples, peels left on and cut into bite-sized pieces - I like a mix of  1 Red Delicious, 1 Pink Lady and 2 Granny Smith or half and half Red Delicious and Granny Smith
• 1 large lemon, zested and juiced (If you think your lemon might be a bit on the dry side, pierced a couple times with a sharp knife and microwave it for 20 seconds before juicing)  
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise 
• 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup of raisins, plumped by submerging in a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes and then well drained
• 1/2 cup pecan halves toasted for a few minutes in a dry pan to bring out their flavor and then roughly chopped.
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Method - 

1. In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, lemon zest, 1/2 of the lemon juice and salt until well combined. Set aside
2. Put the remaining half of 1/2 of the lemon juice in a large mixing bowl, and drop the apple pieces in as you cut them, tossing as you go. 
3. Once the apples are all cut, add the mayonnaise mixture, celery, cranberries, drained raisins, and nuts, toss well to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving; however this can be made earlier in the day.

Enjoy!