If you’re looking for a salad that’s fresh, flavorful, and anything but boring, this Candied Walnut Salad checks all the boxes. Crisp greens are tossed with tart apples, creamy feta, sweet candied walnuts, and a tangy-sweet homemade dressing that pulls everything together. It’s the perfect balance of textures and flavors—fresh, crunchy, creamy, and just a little sweet. Whether you’re serving it for a holiday meal, a casual dinner, or bringing it to a potluck, this one’s always a crowd favorite.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Salad
- Leafy greens – Such as Romaine.
- Craisins
- Apples
- Orange juice
- Walnuts
- Granulated sugar
- Blue cheese – Or Gorgonzola. If blue cheese absolutely gives you the ookies and you CANNOT handle the thought of it (the flavor in the salad will be very mild, I promise!), you can use another strong cheese like feta. But I really, really think you should use the real thing!
Dressing
- Red wine vinegar
- Honey
- Fresh garlic
- Kosher salt
- Canola oil
- Black pepper
How to Make Candied Walnut Salad
- Before you get started–even a few days before–go ahead and make the Honey Red Wine Vinaigrette dressing.
- Wash and chop lettuce. Set aside to drain.
- Combine walnuts and sugar in a medium skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly. After a few minutes, the sugar will look very fine and then a few minutes after that, it will start to liquefy. This is when you have to be absolutely vigilant about scraping the bottom of the skillet and making sure everything gets stirred around. The syrup will begin to darken and will coat the nuts. When they reach a golden brown color, remove from heat.
- Stir occasionally as the nuts begin to cool. After a few minutes, spread candied nuts onto a greased piece of parchment or wax paper or a greased cookie sheet and allow to cool completely. Set aside.
- Chop blue cheese or Gorgonzola very finely. You want crumbles, not chunks.
- Chop apples and toss them in orange juice.
- When ready to serve, toss lettuce, cranberries, walnuts, apples, and blue cheese in a large bowl.
- Add dressing as desired; it really is better all mixed together rather than on top, but the dressing will wilt any leftovers, so plan accordingly.
Storing and Other Tips
- Dressed salad will not make great leftovers so it’s best to store salad and dressing separately if you think you may have leftovers.
- Store dressing and salad ingredients in airtight containers and store in refrigerator. Consume both the salad and the dressing within 3-4 days for best results.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can definitely make your dressing a day or two ahead of time. If you are prepping salad ingredients more than a few hours before, I would store them each separately and combine right before serving for best results.
Honey Cider Vinaigrette or Maple Dijon Vinaigrette would be other great options!
Yes—candied pecans, almonds, or toasted walnuts work beautifully. You can also swap the feta or Gorgonzola for blue cheese or goat cheese depending on your preference.
Make sure all components are dry before tossing. Add dressing just before serving, and keep the candied walnuts and apples separate until the last minute for maximum crunch.
Cook the walnuts over medium heat, stirring constantly, and watch closely as the sugar melts and coats the nuts. The moment they’re golden and fragrant, transfer them to parchment or foil to cool—don’t walk away! Burnt nuts happen fast.
Candied Walnut Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
Dressing
- ½ cup red wine vinegar
- ½ cup honey
- 1-2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1 tsp. Kosher salt
- ½ cup canola oil
- 1 teaspoon black pepper ground
Salad
- 2 heads heads leafy greens (like Romaine) chopped
- ¾ cup Craisins
- 2 apples, sweet, crisp cored and diced
- ½ cup orange juice
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped
- ¼ cup sugar
- 4 ounces blue or Gorgonzola cheese crumbled
Instructions
Dressing
- In a blender, combine vinegar, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper. Place lid on blender and blend on high. While blender is running, add oil in a steady stream. Store in refrigerator for about 2-3 weeks. Shake well before serving.
Salad
- Place chopped lettuce in a large salad bowl. Set aside.
- To candy the nuts, combine walnuts and sugar in a medium skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly. After a few minutes, the sugar will look very fine and then a few minutes after that, it will start to liquefy. This is when you have to be absolutely vigilant about scraping the bottom of the skillet and making sure everything gets stirred around. The syrup will begin to darken and will coat the nuts. When they reach a golden brown color, remove from heat.
- Stir occasionally as the nuts begin to cool. After a few minutes, spread candied nuts onto a greased piece of parchment or wax paper or a greased cookie sheet and allow to cool completely. Set aside.
- Chop blue cheese or Gorgonzola very finely. Set aside.
- Chop apples and toss in orange juice.
- When ready to serve, toss lettuce, cranberries, walnuts, apples, and blue cheese in a large bowl. Add dressing if desired; it really is better all mixed together rather than on top, but the dressing will wilt any leftovers.
Notes
- Dressed salad will not make great leftovers so it’s best to store salad and dressing separately if you think you may have leftovers.
- Store dressing and salad ingredients in airtight containers and store in refrigerator. Consume both the salad and the dressing within 3-4 days for best results.
Nutrition
Questions & Reviews
I love your website, but why is it that some recipes don’t give you the opportunity to just print the text? Some recipes are 7 pages long with pictures, and I don’t always need all that printing of pictures.
Made this for Thanksgiving yesterday. Yum! I a definite keeper. Thanks!
This is very similar to a salad my aunt HAS to make at all our family gatherings. She’s not allowed in without the salad! And it’s gone every time. She uses maple vinegarette and adds pears, but it’s pretty much the same as yours.
wow! let me tell ya, I took this to a potluck and it was gone before everyone got to eat. delicious!!!
Okay, I just have to share this. I had to take a salad to a barbecue last weekend. We ended up with tons of food for our small group and everyone took home lots of leftovers. Well, everyone but me, because I made this amazingly awesome salad and it was completely gone by the end of the night. Wahoo!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping me supplied with such fabulous recipes. I think I would shrivel up and die (or at least go very hungry) without you.
I always love your salads! I was looking for a quick one for a side-salad and this one seemed perfect. It was! I’ve made salads similar to this one, but never this exact combination, and I love it. We ate it three times this week. I used 1/2 red leaf lettuce (my favorite salad lettuce) and baby arugula, which was the perfect flavor combination for me.
Balsamic Vinaigrette is probably my top-favorite salad dressing. I have a pretty good recipe but was hoping you had one. I think it would be great on this salad.
This salad, and especially the dressing, is AMAZING! I’ve been sick of all the foods I know how to make for months and my sister told me about your blog. I can’t wait to try out your other recipes. I had to thank you guys for doing this blog and bringing so much happiness to stranger’s tummy 😀
This looks delicious. I love your website and pass it along to friends and family all the time, so thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Um… those look like pecans in the pictures, but the recipe keeps saying walnuts. Am I going nuts?
Lol- good eye Ali! I don’t really love walnuts so I used pecans when I made this and added my pics to Kate’s. Either one works!
As soon as I saw reference to this salad I followed the link. The salad sounds amazing – the only thing I’d substitute are dried sour cherries for the craisins. I cannot imagine why anyone would hesitate for a second about combining these ingredients! The dressing sounds terrific, I can’t wait to make it.
Thanks for posting… this sounds so incredibly yummy! Can’t wait to try it out 🙂