I couldn’t ever find the perfect Waldorf salad recipe — one that didn’t have too much mayonnaise but that still had enough of the original flavor to be called a Waldorf. So I mixed, matched, and experimented, and I finally came up with the perfect sweet twist on the classic version. Now I get requests for it at every family get-together!
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 25 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced
- 1 Red Delicious apple, cored and diced
- 1 Asian pear, cored and cubed
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup seedless green grapes, halved
- 1 ½ cups sweetened dried cranberries
- 1 ¼ cups plain yogurt
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine apples, pear, celery, almonds, raisins, grapes, and cranberries. In a separate bowl, stir together yogurt, both sugars, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Pour dressing over fruit mixture and gently stir until evenly coated.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 451 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 68 g |
| Cholesterol | 10 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 154 mg |
| Sugars | 58 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very good. Made it for a family get together and everyone liked it. I put just the brown sugar with cinnamon in lime yogurt.
This is requested every year for Holiday meals by my extended family. Not too much of a mayonnaise taste, just enough sweet, and the cinnamon is a perfect balance to the other flavors. I always use regular pairs as the Asian variety is difficult to find. Love it!
I made a smaller quantity of apples so I adjusted 1 TBL of mayo and 2 Tbl of yogurt and a good drizzling of honey instead of sugars. Delish!
It was a hit with my neighbors and their children and grandchildren. A beautiful dish for a warm night in Prescott AZ
I am giving 5 stars to my version of this recipe. I can’t stand Granny Smith apples, so I used a large Ambrosia apple, a large red delicious apple and a couple of Golden Delicious apples. I used 2 Great Value Vanilla Yogurts (6 oz. each), and Great Value Cranberries with Honey Roasted Pecans instead of just regular almonds. Since the nuts and cranberries were sweetened already, I did not add the white sugar and added the brown to my taste…..a little at first, then more later after chilling and tasting.
This was fantastic! I’ve made a Waldorf for years, but decided to try a different recipe this year. I had about 6 family members (the ones who cook) ask me for the recipe. I will be making this again! I made this recipe a day ahead and it was delicious.
This is a nice variation of the original salad. I? would decrease the dressing by half, unless you enjoy a soupy salad. The yogurt is a nice touch.
I’ve been looking for a good Waldorf Salad with yogurt for a while so I thought I’d give this a go. I apologize I had to make a few changes because of the ingredients I had on hand but this is still a 5 star salad. I couldn’t find plain yogurt so I used vanilla and cut out the brown sugar and cut back on the white sugar by a bit. I didn’t have a pear or almonds so improvised by adding an extra apple and used toasted walnuts. I didn’t add raisins which is a personal preference. I like how versatile this recipe is and it will be my go to for Waldorf Salad. Next time I’ll plan ahead and use a pear and almonds. Thanks for sharing this recipe Jenny.
I was at out country home so I used what I had available and cut the recipe in half. I used one whole Granny Smith and one whole honey crisp apple but no Asian pear. Had no plain yogurt so substituted chobani 2% pineapple, mayo and added 3 tablespoons of lite sour cream. Trying to make it healthier, cut out all sugar, raisins, and used 1/2 cup of walnuts instead of almonds. Mixed dressing and fruit separately until chilled completely and then mixed 1 hour prior to dinner. Turned out wonderful and just slightly sweet, there was just a hint of the pineapple. Next time I may add jicama for extra crunch.
Like the yogurt.
Wow! This is the best Waldorf salad I have ever made. Thank you!!
My family loves this salad – in fact I’m making it for Christmas dinner this year – by request!! This is a perfect Waldorf Salad!!
Great Recipe!! Very simple and it looks great too. I made it exactly as listed and added some red grapes. I made it about 4 hours ahead of time so the fruit would chill in a separate bowl, and the dressing chilled in another. Family and special visitors loved it. I did pay attention to the many reviews that indicated too much dressing. I simply put the dressing in a small pitcher and let everyone pour it on their own serving and mix it in. Some opted to go without dressing. This approach worked perfectly. I do agree, it would have been way too much liquid for the fruit if I had poured it all into the serving bowl. This way, the leftover fruit will keep much better as well. The leftover dressing – it is soo yummy. It is going on oatmeal in the morning. Next time, the only thing I will change is to eliminate the pear, and add a variety of apples since my husband, who doesn’t like pears at all, was able to detect it in the mix (I thought he would miss it!). Love it!
Delicious, easy and fast! It was a bit too sweet ( and I have a sweet tooth) so next time I would cut back on the sugars and the mayo….there seemed to be a lot of dressing!
I love this version of a waldorf salad. I don’t like quite that much dressing, so I cut it back by about 1/3. I added pecans, because they are what I already had. I also substituted a red pear, because I couldn’t find an asian pear. If you are making this the night before, save the marshmallows to add shortly before serving as they will melt overnight in the dressing.
I was looking for a little extra for my meal last night and tried this. It was fabulous. I was feeding 5 children, 3 teens, and 5 adults. One of the children really turned up his nose when he saw it, so I told him to just touch it with his finger and taste and if he didn’t like it, the others could have more. As soon as he tasted it, his eye lit up and he said, “Grandma, is this dessert!?!” The only change I made, was the use of vanilla yogurt since I didn’t have plain. I think I will continue to use vanilla. VERY good recipe!
This is great, but try this. Instead of Yogurt…..take 1 cup of whipping cream, whip it in a blender until it is stiff then add 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the rest. Its really sweet and delicious
this is NOT your mother’s waldorf salad. This is so good! I used vanilla yogurt. This says that it makes 8 servings…but it makes a LOT, and I only used 2 apples. A recipe has to be really wonderful for me to take the time to review it! thank you
Awesome salad – great for someone who likes Waldorf salad but isn’t a fan of mayo. I followed another user’s suggestion and used cottage cheese instead of the yogurt (because that’s what I had on hand). When I blended it I added a little milk to get the right consistency and help blend the curds. I also added some halved red grapes and a few extra slivered almonds. Will definitely make again!
This was very good, but I ended up making changes. Store had no granny smiths, so I used braeburn. I had walnuts on hand, so used those instead of almonds. I cut back the amount of cranberries by 1/2. I also cut back the amount of dressing by about 1/2 and it was still plenty. I also slightly cut back the amount of sugars and it was still plenty sweet.
I made this for a dinner of thirty people and the best part is the fact that you can change the number of servings and it changes the recipe. I used Walnuts instead of almonds…I’m wishing I would of used the almonds, I mixed my grapes half red, half white and also added Gala apples as well as the others. This pretty much liked by everyone and I should of printed out the recipe to share. I think it would be great with chicken added and served on a crescent for a special luncheon. This was a great recipe!!!! Will definitely make this a keeper.