Dessert Apple Salad with Cashews, Raisins and Honey

Name: Dessert Apple Salad with Cashews, Raisins and Honey
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Large ripe apples 3-4; Cashews 50 g; Seedless raisins 50 g; Light honey 3 tbsp (65 g); Lemon juice 1-1.5 tbsp (and a little more to thin the honey); Parmesan or Grana Padano 1 tbsp grated (7 g); Fresh chili to taste; Brandy or whiskey 2 tbsp (optional, for soaking the raisins); Warm water for soaking the raisins

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15 mins

We make this homemade apple salad sweet and count it among the tasty desserts. It is a very simple fruit salad of ripe, juicy apples with raisins and nuts. Honey is the dressing, and for a piquant note I add a little hard cheese ground with a piece of fresh chili. It comes out delightful!

Adding fresh apples to salads has one important catch: the cut surface darkens quickly. The common belief is that it is oxidation of iron, which apples contain a lot of, or of ascorbic acid. Scientists say it is not quite so. A complex chemical reaction turns compounds with obscure names into even more obscure ones. Still, a little lemon juice solves the problem perfectly. Or use the GMO Arctic variety, which does not darken at all.

The famous Waldorf salad of red ripe apples is a calling card of American cuisine. It is made by special rules, although there is no single exact recipe. It includes celery stalks or grated celery root, raisins or grapes, and the dressing is based on yogurt with spices or plain mayonnaise. Nuts are often added, along with so-called “signature touches”.

We make apple salad as a treat, and it is very tasty and juicy. We add cashews and soaked seedless raisins, preferably large and multicolored. The dressing is plain high-quality flower or linden honey. The special ingredient is hard cheese, Parmesan or Grana Padano, ground with a piece of hot pepper, and you need very little of it. The combination of sweet-and-sour with spicy is impressive!

We prefer large, juicy apples with a sweet-and-sour taste. The Idared or Jonagold varieties are excellent. It is important that the fruit is fresh and not bruised.

Do not serve apple salad cold, and certainly do not keep it in the fridge before serving. Apples taste best at room temperature. Take the fruit out of the fridge ahead of time and soak the raisins. Use light honey, flower or linden. Dark honey dulls the colors of the ingredients. Besides, flower honey is more aromatic, so the salad will taste better.

Ingredients

4 servings

Large ripe apples 3-4
Cashews 50 g
Seedless raisins 50 g
Light honey 3 tbsp (65 g)
Lemon juice 1-1.5 tbsp (and a little more to thin the honey)
Parmesan or Grana Padano 1 tbsp grated (7 g)
Fresh chili to taste
Brandy or whiskey 2 tbsp (optional, for soaking the raisins)
Warm water for soaking the raisins

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparation

An apple salad should be crunchy. For that, the apples must be firm, not limp. Remember that sound from childhood when you bite an apple picked in the neighbor’s garden? It is very loud and draws “unwanted” attention, a real crunch!

Take the apples out of the fridge ahead of time so they warm up to room temperature.

Soak the raisins for at least half an hour. We use a mix of seedless raisins made from light and dark grapes. If it suits you, cover the raisins with 2 tbsp of aromatic brandy or whiskey mixed with warm water. Or just warm water if children will eat the salad.
Lightly toast the cashews in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring, for 3-4 mins, until they smell pleasant. Tip them onto a plate and let them cool.

Salad

Prepare the apples. Have a convenient bowl ready for mixing. Wash the apples and peel them. Cut them into four pieces and remove the cores with the seeds. Cut out any bruised spots. Cut the flesh into thick matchsticks or, more conveniently, grate it on a suitable grater. Immediately sprinkle the cut flesh with 1-1.5 tbsp of lemon juice and toss gently so the apples do not darken. By the way, squeeze the lemon through a strainer so no seeds end up in the salad.

Add the nuts, raisins and honey to the apples. Drain the soaked raisins in a colander and let all the liquid run off. Add the toasted cashews to the apples, then the soaked raisins and 1 tbsp of honey (21 g). If the honey is not very runny, put the amount you need into a cup and add a little, just a little, water or lemon juice. Stir until the honey is thick but pourable. Gently mix the salad.

Serving

Divide the salad among bowls and drizzle with the remaining honey (2 tbsp). By the way, despite the small amount of dressing, the apples hold their shape well when packed into a culinary ring, a nice way to serve.
Sprinkle the salad with the pepper cheese. Blend 1 tbsp of grated Parmesan (7 g) with a small piece of fresh hot chili. Sift the mixture through a strainer and sprinkle it over the apple salad. Serve right away, at room temperature.
The sweet dessert apple salad is ready to serve. People often ask what substitutions are possible. Apples can be replaced with a sweet pear, or you can mix apple and pear. Cinnamon, arugula and rosemary go well in this salad, for those who like them. You can use almost any nuts: hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts or walnuts. Celery stalks work well too, though then the salad looks more like a sweet Waldorf. And one more thing: I once saw “sea pebbles”, candy-coated raisins, used instead of plain raisins. It is amazing, and the kids are delighted.

Calories and macros

290 kcal

Serving ≈ 250 g

Protein4 g6% of kcal
Fat6 g21% of kcal
Carbs48 g73% of kcal

100 g116 kcalProtein 1.6 gFat 2.5 gCarbs 19.2 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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