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
It is absolutely outstanding! I loved every bite and yes, i drank the remaining dressing left in my bowl. Dynamite! ???????????? Thank you so much for sharing!
This looks really good and I want to make it for my family. I’ll have to use pecans instead of walnuts because my husband and and some of my children get canker sores when they eat walnuts.
The link to the salad dressing no longer works. I have made it before but did not save the dressing recipe. Can you have the link fixed?
Thanks!
Sorry about that- it should be working now!
About how many servings does this make? I’m in charge of feeding 200 people at our Christmas party.
I think The Sister’s Café stole your recipe for this salad and the dressing. They posted one that’s exactly the same, even some of the directions are verbatim. p.s. I love the salad and want the right party to get the credit.
http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2009/06/candied-walnut-salad-2#comment-19730
I made this to go with our Thanksgiving dinner at it was a big hit! Now I want to make it for a church Christmas party but need some help with the quantites I need. How much did you use for serving 100?
This salad looks very similar to Wendy’s apple pecan chicken salad – which is currently my favorite fast food salad. My only problem is duplicating their dressing – it’s a pomegranate vinaigrette dressing with a taste of orange and I just can’t seem to get it right.
So good! So, so good! I’m not even a huge fan of blue cheese, but I really enjoyed it in this salad!
This salad looks wonderful and I am going to make it today–however, I just noticed that in all the images you show, it’s pecans, not walnuts that are used–
so, which works best– pecans or walnuts?
Love this site-so many delicious goodies, I am very much appreciating.
I often use pecans instead of walnuts because I like them better, but yes, the recipe calls for walnuts. 🙂 You can use either one and they’ll both be awesome!
I have had this salad and it was fantastic, and I am not one to usually care for salads with fruit in them. I made it for my family but forgot the blue cheese. I didnt let on that it was missing something, and they still raved about it. There was none left over. Next time, definitely making sure I dont leave anything out, but none the less, it was a big hit, and was a great way to change up the standard lettuce and greens salad mixture we all tend to make!