Now I have to say that I am not a huge fan of Jamie Oliver himself, but over the years I have tried many of his recipes in delicious magazine and always thought they were very good. When I saw his latest book, Jamie's America, I had to get it. It reminds me very much of a book in a Time Life series on food in different countries that Mum had when we were children. I was entranced with the book on America as I found the cultural context, and the range of cooking styles and influences around that big country, fascinating. So I had exactly the same feeling when I came across Jamie's book.
Funnily enough, at the community dinners in which I participate, my team mate Margaret made a great waldorf salad one night. She kindly sent me an email with the details - she had found this recipe in a magazine at her hairdresser and copied it. (Well, the list of ingredients - someone had ripped out the instructions). So I had already tried the salad and had Margaret's list of ingredients in hand ready to make it myself when I discovered that the recipe came from Jamie's America. It's great, a really good summertime meal. (The comments in brackets in the ingredients list are mine).
Have a wonderful new year! Love from Jane xxx
Jamie's Waldorf Salad
Serves four
What you need:
- 4 large handfuls of interesting green salad leaves, washed and spun dry (I have only recently started using a lettuce spinner, gosh they are good!)
- 2 large handfuls of seedless green or red grapes (or you could have half and half), sliced in half
- 3 medium sticks of celery, trimmed
- 2 large handfuls of walnuts (approximately 100g), roughly chopped
- A handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
- 1 red apple
- 150g mild blue cheese, such as dolcelatte (there's a nice mild King Island blue that comes in a roll which you can buy at Woollies which would work well)
Dressing
- 1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil
- 1 heaped tablespoon natural yoghurt
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
What you do
- In a large bowl toss together the leaves and the grapes.
- Finely slice the celery sticks and add to the salad.
- In a dry pan over a medium heat toast the walnuts. Keep an eye on them - they will only take a couple of minutes.
- Discard the tougher ends of the parsley stalks and finely chop the rest of the stalks, then put to the side for a minute.
- Chop the parsley leaves finely and add to the salad.
- To make the dressing, combine the mustard and vinegar and add the reserved chopped parsley stalks.
- Pour in three times as much olive oil as the dressing you have made so far (or less olive oil, depending on your preference) and mix together.
- Add the yoghurt and a good pinch of salt and pepper to the dressing and mix again.
- Drizzle a little of the dressing over the salad so far.
- Finely slice the apple into matchsticks and scatter over the salad.
- Add the toasted walnuts and dressing and toss everything together.
- Transfer the salad to a large serving platter, piling the grapes and walnuts over the leaves. Use a knife to break off little pieces of the cheese, scattering over the salad and serve.
