Waldorf salad recipe in a modern way
The idea for the Waldorf salad came spontaneously. I was making lots of fonds (soups, sauce bases) which I wanted to freeze and use when necessary. While doing it, I was using chicken, turkey, quail leftovers, so I had a bunch of meat that I needed to find a way to use.
I know that meat doesn’t have anything to do with the Waldorf salad…But I thought how it would be great to combine cooked meat with some salad.
components
- BOILED MEAT PATE
- 400-500gr boiled meat from the soup
- 150 gr of cream cheese
- 1/3 teaspoon of dijon mustard
- 5 bigger anchovies
- 5-6 pickled onions
- cooking cream when necessary
- salt, coriander, white pepper, mayonnaise to taste
- CELERY PUREE
- CELERY PUREE
- 1 bigger celery root
- 1-2 celery stems
- 300 ml of milk
- 1 bigger apple
- 100 gr toasted walnuts
- microgreens (whichever you choose)
- salt, white pepper, nutmeg
- 1 bigger apple
- 100 gr toasted walnuts
- microgreens (whichever you choose)
- finely chopped chives
- water when necessary
Instruction
- Separate the boiled meat (chicken, turkey, or beef) from fat and bones and cut into small pieces.
- Mix it with cream cheese, dijon mustard, pickled onions and add salt, white pepper, cooking cream, coriander and mayonnaise to your taste, so that you get a homogeneous mixture. You don't have to use mayonnaise, but put it if you want to use this pate as a toasted bread spread.
- Clean and wash celery root. Cut part of the celery into cubes, and the other part into mandolin leaves 1 mm thick. Cook them in two separate bowls until they soften in the mixture of milk and cooking cream with the addition of water.
- Once the celery is cooked, mix puree from the part that is cut into cubes and liqui in which the celery was cooked. Texture needs to be smooth and shiny without lumps. Mash through the sieve before serving.
- Peel celery stems with potato peeler, then cut into julienne sticks, and at the end brunoise cubes.
- Granny Smith apple cut into leaves on mandolin, then julienne sticks, then brunoise cubes, like with celery stems.
- Cut and toast walnuts on medium temperature. Chop chives into smaller pieces.
- Once you serve, first put celery puree, then form canela from meat pate. Sprinkle with chopped apples and celery. Decorate with cooked celery leaves, toasted walnuts, chives and microgreens.
Most of you would probably say that I should have just made Ceasar salad…but I am bored of it already because I feel like you can find it on every corner.
What came next was me roaming through my fridge, where I had lots of all kinds of celery. And that is how I came to the idea of the Waldorf salad in a warm form.
Pate from leftover boiled meat
I made something like French rillettes. I choppen the boiled meat in smaller pieces, added fat, but in theform of cream cheese, made it more sour by adding pickled onions, and used anchovies instead of the salt. I also added a bit of dijon mustard. To make it mix well, I added a bit of cooking cream, mayonaise (optional), and spices for the special taste. Coriander, white pepper, chives.
If you have leftover of this pate, use it for breakfast, as the spread for the toasted (warm) toast. Then, you can add a teaspoon of mayonaise. Take my word for it 🙂
Waldorf salad
What does it consist of?
Celery, apples, mayonaise, walnuts…the rest is your imagination. A part of it is also green salad, I didn’t put it, but you can also use spinach and rocket salad instead, along with some green spice like me, that is, any green leaf : )
Waldorf salad with celery in a different way
Besides finely chopped celery stems (remove fibers beforehand so they don’t get stuck in your teeth), I also made celery head puree.
I cooked one celery head or two, depending on its size in a combination of milk and cooking cream (plus a bit of water) until it softened completely.
And then I mixed it into puree and seasoned it with white pepper, salt and nutmeg. Nutmeg gives additional taste to the puree. Read here everything you need to know on how to use nutmeg.
Also, I cut one part of celery into mandolin of 1mm width long leaves and cooked in the same combination of milk, cooking cream and a bit of water. Later I twisted those celery leaves into casual trumpets which also served for decoration. They were of course very edible.
Brunoise apple, but it can also be celery
First I cut apple in mandolin leaves (some I kept for the decoration), then julienne (sticks), and then brunoise – cubes. I tried to make all of the cubes the same size, because that way they look the best of a plate.
Walnuts
Larger cut and toasted.
The rest
Here you can use whatever you can think of. I combined chives and microgreens, as a substitute for the green salad.
Plating
You can see my ideas for decoration in every picture in this post. Some seem more successful, some less. You can choose one of them or make an even better plate with your own idea 🙂
If you like hearty salads like me, which is good for the diet 🙂 look at this series of recipes:
Spiralizer zucchini with goat cheese and avocado
Hearty beef and vegetables salad
Chicken with vegetables in honey and mustard marinade
