green apple walnut salad
I am a salad kind of girl. I tend to get stuck in a happy rut with my food, so I’ve never looked very far beyond lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, and avocado. Why try to improve on a good thing, right?
Oh, wrong.
I have a new salad now, and I have to confess, I love this salad. I eat it every single day, unless we go out (a very happy rut, no less). It’s simply chock-full of lovely components: crunchy, nutty, light, tart, sweet. It’s great alone or topped with a lean protein (wild salmon is my favorite).
It also has a surprise ingredient: fennel, which I’ve just discovered. I knew fennel was out there in the veggie world, I just never tried it. Why improve on a good thing, you know. So I started out making this salad with celery (which is also really good in it) but once I tried fennel, there was no going back. I think you’ll love it too. Or maybe you’ll be like Caleb and run the other way when you taste it.
Fennel is listed as one of the 130 world’s healthiest foods and has an impressive nutritional profile (including being an anti-flatulent, lol). You can read more about it here.
I always try to get a good healthy dose of fats in my meals, and this salad has two of my favorites: flaxseed oil and walnuts. Both are good sources of omega 3 fatty acids, and if you throw some wild salmon on top, you’ll have even more.
I’ve also included coconut aminos in the dressing, which is a healthier version of amino acids or soy sauce. I like it because it doesn’t contain soy, but has the same light savory sweetness. You can find it at most health food stores now.
And if you’re thinking you see some celery in the salad in the photos, you’re correct. I threw in both celery and fennel for a double dose of goodness. And I forgot the mushrooms until after I photographed it.
Anyway, here is my salad, free of charge. Try it, change it, build on it. I hope it becomes your own favorite salad!
Green Apple Walnut Salad
1 heart of romaine, chopped
1/2 Granny Smith apple, julienned
2 white button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/4 cup fennel, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Layer all ingredients, toss lightly. Combine dressing ingredients below and drizzle over salad.
2 tablespoons flaxseed oil
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, raw
Splash of coconut aminos or Bragg amino acids
Salt and pepper, or herb seasoning of choice
That looks yummy! One of my favs is a spinach, strawberry salad with black olives, grapes and feta cheese.
Mm…I love spinach with strawberries and feta, too!
oh, nice. i struggle with eating salads in the winter – store bought lettuce being what it is. but i may try this as i’m really missing my garden greens! and i love fennel. what i’m really, really missing is vitamin cottage. i had such a great shopping groove for so long in boulder. i’m still figuring out where to buy this or that and ordering from amazon to fill the gaps. i suppose it’s easier to miss my grocer than my friends.
You don’t know what you’re missing until you have it, right? Back in NY, there were NO health food stores except for a few of the mom and pop variety–tiny, very expensive and of limited selection. Here in Colorado there is such an abundance of Whole Foods and Vitamin Cottages, and even King Soopers carries things like kombucha! I’m not sure how I would do if we moved back East–thankfully, we’re not planning on it. 🙂
looks good!
I bet Papa would like the fennel in his salad….the whole thing looks so good.