This months Recipe Redux challenge is to choose a family vintage favorite and redux it! I found waldorf salad in my Mimi's (grandmother) very first cookbook. This old book (circa 1946) was quite interesting to peruse. A few advertisements were placed throughout, promoting certain convenience foods such as instant coffee, frozen TV dinners, instant mashed potatoes, and other "just heat it 'n' eat it" type foods. Foods at which many of us today would turn up our noses, but were cherished by many from the post-World War 2 era. The history of America's food culture is very interesting...but we'll save that for another time.
According to several sites, Waldorf Salad was first made in the late 1800's at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The only change I made was substituting the mayo with reduced fat cottage cheese, giving this dish a good protein punch. You could also use plain yogurt, or simply reduce the amount of mayo if you don't want to completely cast it out.
Waldorf Salad
16 oz reduced fat cottage cheese
1 large fuji apple, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 cup red grapes, halved
2 handfuls walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in large bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Yes, it's that simple!
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| Not quite vintage, but this Mickey Mouse fork has fed my little belly plenty of old fashioned dishes as a tot and deserves this photo-op. |
This quick salad is good on a bed of lettuce, stuffed into a pita or wrap, squished between sandwich bread or eaten just plain. I would even go so far as to call it one of my new breakfast meals. What a great rediscovery...thanks for this months topic, Recipe Redux!
