You’ll call this a “Waldorf Salad” – but apparently the Waldorf Hotel has a trademark on using that name, so I don’t want to violate that in any way!

This kind of salad was never really my favorite, but on rare occasions I find myself hankering for some. So I made one up last night. Mainly because my son started first grade, and I needed a snack for school today, and I thought he might like it. Also, a Waldorf salad typically contains nuts – but we have a tree nut allergy in the house, so no nuts for this family.

I had some apples I bought locally – I’m not exactly sure what they are – but I have it narrowed down to McIntosh, Fuji or Empire. Empires are actually my favorite type of “eating” apple – they’re tart and sweet at the same time. I also used stuff I had around – there are no real measurements to this recipe, and I honestly don’t know how much actual salad this makes (like what a serving size is to tell how how many it makes. I will say that I have 2 sets of nesting bowls, and this recipe fills the smallest bowl of both up about 3/4 of the way.)

So here it is. Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you that the “tablespoon” I used was not a measuring spoon – it was a regular kitchen spoon, like the kind you have in your silverware drawer.

Apple-Raisin Salad

Ingredients

• 3 large apples (your favorite “eatin’” kind), washed and diced
• 2 snack-size boxes of raisins
• 2 ribs celery, washed and diced
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 kitchen tablespoon sour cream
• 1 kitchen tablespoon mayo
• 1 kitchen tablespoon sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Preparation

1. Chuck everything into a bowl and mix, coating the apples well. Cover and refrigerate. Best after 24 hours, when the flavors marry (but still pretty good right away!)

I’ve been told that you can replace the sour cream with plain yogurt to reduce the calorie count, and I’m willing to bet if you used other dried fruit (like maybe dried cherries or craisins) it would still be yummy. I’m also thinking next time I might try chucking in some unsalted sunflower seeds – maybe toasting them up first and popping those in for that “nut” flavor (sans nuts). but I was surprised – as I said, normally I’m not a Waldorf-salad lover, but I think the addition of sugar and cinnamon really helped that flavor along.