This Kale and Apple Salad with Blue Cheese and Maple Glazed Walnuts is simple, yet special. It’s the perfect side dish or light lunch for the fall and winter months.
Ingredient Notes
Kale- I chose to use baby kale, but this salad is also great with de-stemmed, finely sliced lacinato or curly kale.
Apples- You can certainly use any apple you like. I often use honeycrisp, braeburn, fuji and gala apples in salads.
Cheese- I like using blue cheese and am particularly found of semi-firm Italian varieties for this salad, but any blue cheese will do. Some alternative options are goat cheese or feta.
Nuts- Walnuts go perfectly with the ingredients in this salad. I love baking them in maple syrup and butter to make them extra special, but this step is optional. Pecans are a good substitute.
Recipe Steps
This salad is fairly simple to put together, but the most involved step is glazing the nuts. Preheat the oven to 375F. Toast the nuts over the stovetop in a pan with butter. Stir in maple syrup. Bring to a simmer and cook about 3 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake until crispy, about 10 minutes. Cool over a wire rack.
While the nuts roast, slice the apples. Whisk together the ingredients of the balsamic dressing.
To serve, place kale, apples and nuts in a bowl. Toss with dressing, to taste. Crumble over blue cheese.
Recipe Tips and FAQs
- For a simpler preparation of the nuts, simply whisk together melted butter and maple syrup. Toss nuts on a sheet tray with maple-butter, season with salt and bake until crispy, about 10-15 minutes.
- Make this salad your own. Use any variety of apple or switch it up with thinly sliced mature kale. Try feta or goat cheese instead of blue cheese, if preferred.
- To prevent browning, toss the apples in lemon juice immediately after cutting.
Apple is a great addition to salads. You can slice them thin or cut them into small cubes.
Apples go well with a variety of greens including kale, butter or boston bibb lettuce. Apples also pair well with nuts, such as walnuts, pecans and pistachios. They also are great paired with blue cheese, feta and goat cheese.
More Fall Recipes
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Glaze
- Cranberry Orange Scones
- Pear and Pomegranate Salad with Goat Cheese and Pistachios
- Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows and Brown Butter Pecan Topping
- Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples and Onions
- Sausage Chestnut Stuffing
- Braised Short Ribs with Sunchoke Puree
- Apple Cider Braised Turkey Legs
- Pumpkin Meringue Pie
- Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes with Whipped Sour Cream
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Kale and Apple Salad with Blue Cheese and Maple Glazed Walnuts
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This Kale and Apple Salad with Blue Cheese and Maple Glazed Walnuts is simple, yet special. It’s the perfect side dish or light lunch for the fall and winter months.
Ingredients
- 8 cups (4oz) baby kale
- 1 apple, such as honey crisp or braeburn
- 4oz Semi-firm blue cheese
Walnuts:
- ½ cup walnuts
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- Kosher salt
Dressing:
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- ½ tablespoons lemon juice, plus more as needed
- ½ teaspoon maple syrup
- Kosher salt
Instructions
- Glaze walnuts: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a small baking sheet with parchment. In a small nonstick pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add walnuts to pan, season with salt and toss to coat. Pour in syrup and bring to a simmer. Do not stir after maple syrup starts simmering as this could cause the sugars to crystalize. Cook 3 minutes or until most of excess liquid has evaporated, being careful not to burn the sugar.
- Bake and cool: Transfer walnuts to lined baking sheet. Bake on center rack for 10 minutes or until remaining liquid has evaporated. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. The nuts should have a crispy coating similar to a praline.
- Prep apple: As nuts cool, cut the apple. Slice in half lengthwise, and then in half again. Cut on a diagonal to remove the core. Using a sharp chef’s knife or mandolin, cut into thin slices. Transfer to bowl and toss in lemon juice to prevent browning. This also adds a nice tart flavor.
- Make dressing: Add oil to bowl. Slowly whisk in vinegar and lemon juice to emulsify. Whisk in syrup.
- Serve: Add kale and apples to a large bowl. Drizzle over desired amount of dressing and toss to coat. Transfer to serving bowls. Top with nuts and thin shavings or crumbles of blue cheese. Enjoy.
Notes
You can use any apple you prefer, such as fuji, pink lady or gala. Toss with lemon juice to avoid browning.
Substitute walnuts with pecans or pistachios, if desired.
If you don’t like blue cheese, try goat cheese or feta.
Make a double batch of nuts and save them for snacking, if desired.
The maple glazed walnuts are adapted from a recipe by Martha Stewart.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Bake, Saute
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ¼ of salad
- Calories: 400
- Sugar: 14g
- Sodium: 340mg
- Fat: 33g
- Saturated Fat: 9g
- Unsaturated Fat: 24g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 21g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 10g
This looks great. I agree that the quality of the ingredients is very important.
Yes, it’s so important!
What a wonderful salad. I’m adding the walnuts to my stick them in everything list!
Oh yes!
The salad looks fabulous..with nutty crunchy walnuts it’s definitely have to try recipe
Thank you, Lathiya!