I do so love the autumn when it rolls around. The air is filled with the smell of the harvest . . . blackberries, apples, pears. When we lived down south our cottage was surrounded by orchards and so the air was also filled with the sounds of the laughter and conversation of the apple pickers as they went about their work. It's one of my favorite times of year. And this is one of my favorite salads that I love to make at this time of year. I call it Apple Harvest Salad and it is chock full of apples, celery, lettuce, cheese, toasted walnuts, and a punchy honey mustard dressing!
As you know I was recently sent some lovely meat from Chadwicks Family Butchers. Chadwicks Family Butchers is one of the best butchers in London and also operate an online Butcher's Shop where you can order quality organic meat products, for pick up in London, or delivery nationwide. All the Beef, Pork, lamb, chicken and game is hand selected so you can be sure that what you are receiving is of the best quality as well as being organic.
One of the things in that great Barbeque pack they sent me was their Chicken & Tarragon Burgers. Weighing in at 175g they are each made with fresh chicken breast and thigh meat, tarragon, onion, sea salt and white pepper. They are an organic and gluten free product and are individually made using a pastry cutter to shape them. I knew that they would go very well with my Apple Harvest Salad. We were in for a real treat!
What a fabulously flavoured burger this was. Chicken is a natural with tarragon! These were moist and delicious. The tarragon flavor was not overpowering so you still got the nice taste of the chicken and as we all know dark meat has more flavor than light, so these burgers pack some lovely chicken flavor also. They were also really hefty and really filling. We both quite loved them and they went fabulously with this salad. We were both filled to the eyeballs after eating these burgers so this salad made a nice light side dish to go with them!
This really is a lovely salad, quite remininscent of a waldorf salad really, except that the apple is cut into sticks instead of cubes. You will want a nice eating apple for this. I used Pink Ladies. You get a nice crunch from the walnuts as well. I always toast my walnuts. Toasting them makes them even crunchier and brings out that lovely walnut flavor.
The celery also adds crunch along with the lettuce, which go very well with the creaminess of the cheddar and of course apples are a natural with cheddar. They just go together so very well. I think this is a salad the whole family will enjoy! I do so love apple season when the apples are so fresh and so tasty, don't you? You're gonna love LOVE the dressing! I guarantee!
*Harvest Apple Salad*Serves 6 to 8Printable Recipe
The perfect salad mix of greens, cheese, apple and nuts, with a tangy and delicious Honey Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing.
For the Salad:1 hearts of romaine lettce, cut in half lengthwise and then sliced crosswise into strips4 stalks of celery, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced170g of grated strong cheddar cheese (undyed, 1 1/2 cups)40g of toasted walnut nut pieces (1/3 cup)2 sweet eating apples, cut into sticks(If you cut them ahead of time toss them with a bit of lemon juice to keep them from turning brown)
For the dressing:60ml of apple cider vinegar (1/4 cup)78ml of olive oil (1/3 cup)1 TBS Dijon mustard1 TBS liquid honeyfine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
First make the dressing. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Give them a good shake until well combined. Set aside.
Place all of the salad ingredients into a large salad bowl. Toss together to combine. Drizzle with a bit of dressing and toss again. Serve immediately. Pass any extra dressing at the table.
I have to say overall I have been really impressed with the delivery service and products that I received from Chadwicks. Everything arrived promptly, well packaged and properly chilled. I would not hesitate to use them again. They carry a wide variety of meat products from from bacon to haggis and everything in between. Turkey's, Chickens and Chicken burgers, Lamb, a wide variety of Sausages, Beef, hams, Pork, Cheeses, etc. I don't know what they don't have. They also offer different hampers, including BBQ packs, Cheese Boards, Breakfast Packs, Christmas Hampers and a whole lot more.
Stay tuned to see what I cooked up next! (Yes, there IS more!)
