Curried Apple Walnut Salad with Flavor “Pop”

Here’s a refreshing apple salad which contains an eclectic combination of ingredients. The resulting salad surprises with several interesting flavor “pops.” It makes a great accompaniment to a holiday meal which is full of rich, heavy dishes. The salad combines apples with celery and walnuts. The “surprise” ingredient is curry powder. And a shout out to celery — the recipe is the perfect way to include this often overlooked, low calorie vegetable. Walnuts give a flavor “pop”, too. The salad is easy make; just add the curry powder to a lemon juice and oil dressing and pour over the diced apples, celery and walnuts. When combined, the flavor of all the ingredients makes a refreshing — and very healthy — apple salad.

In an effort to eat healthy with plenty of fruits and vegetables, I always try to have apples around on our kitchen counter. They make an easy snack. Plus, I get excited when I see a new idea using apples in a salad or other recipe. I found this recipe in a vintage “Cooking Light” magazine issue and adapted it for my own use.

About Cooking Light Magazine

The Cooking Light magazine came on the scene in the late 1980’s about the time that Americans started taking an interest in a healthy lifestyle and diet. Prior to the 1980s, there wasn’t much information to link diet to heart disease. However, that changed as several large research studies found that a diet high in saturated fats and colesterol was, in fact, related to high cholesterol levels in the blood stream and a much higher chance of suffering heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. Then, add in the detrimental effects of smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and obesity. Wow. Americans became health-conscientious.

The Cooking Light magazine capitalized on those trends, especially when it came to saturated fat, cholesterol and calories. The magazine somehow made traditional recipes seem appealing and tasty. If anyone could turn a calorie-rich recipe into a healthy low-fat one, the folks at the Cooking Light magazine could do it. Plus, the magazine offered many tips on health-related issues.

The magazine had an appealing perk not found in other food and cuisine magazines. The nutritional content breakdown of the recipes was included for most of the dishes. You could quickly see how much saturated fat was in the recipe which you were about to eat.

In 2018, the parent company, Meredith Corporation, ended the monthly publication of Cooking Light and merged it into the EatWell magazine. Their explanation was that the two magazines overlapped in their message. In 2022, Meredith ended the print edition of EatWell, going to a digital version. So, the end of an era came in terms of the innovative Cooking Light magazine along with the demise of many print magazines. However, nutritional recommendatons for eating a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in saturated fats continues. The nutritional information in this magazine and its recipes are timeless.

Refreshing Apple Salad

For this salad, I like to use apples which are good for eating raw as a snack, rather than apples which are best when cooked. Apples which are aromatic and crisp, not too tart with a touch of sweetness make a great salad. Another desirable feature is apples which don’t turn brown after they are sliced.

I discovered a new variety of apples at my local grocery market, Cosmic Crisp apples, during my last shopping trip. These bright red apples have all of the desired salad characteristics for my eclectic salad.

Cosmic Crisp Apples

Cosmic Crisp apples were introduced into the market in 2021 by Washington State University after a 20-year development period. The new variety is a cross between Honeycrisp and Enterprise apples. There is great promise for this apple and the developers predict (hope) that Cosmic Crisp apples will surprass Red Delicious apples as an eating apple. The fact that the apples have a shelf life of a year or more after picking is a selling point to growers and marketers, I’m sure. The new Cosmic Crisp apples are “a large, crisp, juicy, snappy, firm, sweet apple that is slow to brown after slicing.”

Let’s see how this new apple variety works in the salad. I am especially interested to see if I can avoid dipping my sliced apples in lemon juice so they don’t turn brown. If Cosmic Crisp apples aren’t available, there are, however, plenty of other apple varieties which work well in this salad. I can name of Gala, Pink Lady, Jazz, Honeycrisp, Red Delicious, Fuji, Jonagold, Braeburn and McIntash apples.

Making the Recipe

This is such a simple salad to mix up. Just a few ingredients.

Dice the celery and apples. Slice a few of these lovely apples and set aside for garnish. If stale, toast the walnuts in the oven first for a few minutes and then chop. Use both the celery stalks and the leaves.

Mix up the dressing ingredients and shake (lemon juice, water, curry powder, oil and a pinch of salt.) I used a Mason jar for mixing up the dressing.

In keeping with Cooking Light’s objectives of lowering fat and calories, I diluted the oil in the dressing with a little water.

Mix up all salad ingredients up in a large bowl (diced apples, celery and walnuts). Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Chill.

For serving, this salad looks great when garnished with some sort leaf lettuce. I discovered “Living Butter Lettuce” on my latest shopping trip. I love the tender, tasty lettuce leaves of “Butter Lettuce” and purchase this type of lettuce from time to time.

“Living Butter Lettuce” is hydroponically grown (grown in water) and has the roots attached. It is still “living” and is touted to having a longer shelf life of two weeks or more. However, I’ve also discovered that the leaves of this very tender, fragile lettuce freeze easily in the refrigerator. Use caution. Use the crisper drawer of the refrigerator or store on a cool spot on your kitchen counter.

Also, cut off the roots and wash carefully before using.

When you are ready to serve the apple salad, rinse and drain the lettuce leaves (cut off the roots!!). Line a plate with the leaves and add the chilled salad, along with any extra juices. Garnish with the reserved apple slices. (Look, these slices of Cosmic Crisp apples haven’t turned brown yet, yeah!)

I love this delicious, refreshing apple salad. I like both the flavor of the curry and also the walnuts. They compliment the apples and celery perfectly. I’ll eat it with a meal or a snack any day of the year.

This salad is proof that a healthy holiday meal can look good and taste good, too.. Thanks, Cooking Light, for all those years of recipe inspirations. Enjoy!

Reference:

https://www.allrecipes.com/article/we-taste-tested-the-new-cosmic-crisp-apple-to-see-if-its-worth-the-hype