This Week’s Recipe: Fall Harvest Apple, Walnut, Blue Cheese Salad
This fall apple, walnut, blue cheese salad is a delicious yet impressive dish to make as an easy appetizer for your next dinner party. Add a salmon filet and a hard-boiled egg to make it a meal salad. These bold flavors mesh incredibly well together, I love a good fall harvest salad. The best part, you can pair it with any type of dressing you like! Let the blue cheese be the star of the show because it is the strongest flavor in the salad anyways, don’t fight it.
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History of Blue Cheese
Blue cheese is believed to have been discovered by accident when cheeses were stored in caves with naturally controlled temperature and moisture levels which happened to be favorable environments for many varieties of harmless mold. According to legend, one of the first blue cheeses, Roquefort, was discovered when a young boy, eating bread and ewes’ milk cheese, abandoned his meal in a nearby cave after seeing a beautiful girl in the distance. When he returned months later, the mold (Penicillium roqueforti) had transformed his cheese into Roquefort.
Gorgonzola is one of the oldest known blue cheeses, having been created around AD 879, though it is said that it did not contain blue veins until around the 11th century. Stilton is a relatively new addition, becoming popular sometime in the early 1700s. Many varieties of blue cheese that originated subsequently, such as the 20th century Danablu and Cambozola, were an attempt to fill the demand for Roquefort-style cheeses that were prohibitive due to either cost or politics.
Health Benefits of Apples
A medium apple equals around 1.5 cups of fruit. Two cups of fruit daily are recommended on a 2,000-calorie diet.
One medium apple offers the following nutrients:
- Calories: 95
- Carbs: 25 grams
- Fiber: 4 grams
- Vitamin C: 14% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI)
- Potassium: 6% of the RDI
- Vitamin K: 5% of the RDI
This same serving size provides 2–4% of the RDI for manganese, copper, and the vitamins A, E, B1, B2, and B6.
Apples are also a great source of polyphenols. While nutrition labels don’t list these plant compounds, they’re likely responsible for many of the health benefits.
To get the most out of apples, leave the skin on because it contains half of the fiber and most of the polyphenols.
Health Benefits of Walnuts
To say that walnuts are a nutritious food is a bit of an understatement.
Walnuts provide healthy fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals and that’s just the beginning.
The most common variety of walnut is the English walnut, which is also the most studied type.
Walnuts have higher antioxidant activity than any other common nut.
This activity comes from vitamin E, melatonin, and plant compounds called polyphenols, which are particularly high in the papery skin of walnuts.
Walnuts are significantly higher in omega-3 fat than any other nut, providing 2.5 grams per 1-ounce serving.
Omega-3 fat from plants, including walnuts, is called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). It’s an essential fat, meaning you have to get it from your diet.
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Apple Walnut Blue Cheese Salad
Equipment
- saucepan
- cutting board
- chef's knife
- salad tossers
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients
- 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 large honey crisp apple, diced
- ½ cup walnut pieces
- ¼-½ cup blue cheese, crumbled Use as much or as little as you like, it is strong
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, shaved
- 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
- ¾ cup grape tomatoes, cut in halves
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
- fresh ground pepper to taste
Salad dressing
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 4 tbsp creamy salad dressing of choice
Instructions
Dressing
- combine creamy dressing of choice, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar in a small container and shake until combined, set aside
Salad
- hard-boil your eggs: place whole eggs into a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes (less if you want the yolks runny), remove them from heat, and let them rest in ice-cold water until needed
- wash and chop your lettuce
- in a large bowl combine all salad ingredients: lettuce, apples, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, minced garlic, lemon juice, pepper, parmesan, blue cheese
- add salad dressing, toss, portion salad into bowls, finally, garnish with peeled, sliced hard-boiled eggs
- enjoy!
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