Savoury, sweet and crunchy, this Apple Fennel Salad is made with sweet-tart apples, grapes, celery, and fennel tossed in a light and creamy dressing then topped with toasted walnuts. This flavourful and satisfying salad is easy to make and ready in just 15 minutes!
This delicious autumn salad was inspired by a goody but oldlie from Canadian Living magazine, where simple fresh ingredients are tossed together in a creamy honey poppyseed dressing. Just like the original, this recipe contains apples and grapes, which is something I consider very Canadian. And something we often add to salads. In this recipe, both are used and the dressing is made with creamy yoghurt, maple syrup, lemon, Dijon and nigella seeds. Simple and delicious!
Apple Fennel Salad tips & adaptions
- In this apple fennel salad, nigella seeds are added to the dressing for their slight flavour of toasted onion and unique complexity. They could however be replaced with cumin seeds, black sesame seeds, caraway seeds, or celery seeds.
- If you want to make this salad really special, I recommend using a mandolin vegetable slicer. The fennel, apples, and celery can be sliced ultra thin which gives this salad a delicate texture with a variety of flavours in each bite. A mandolin ensures everything is sliced uniformly and guarantees thin slices.
- In case you don’t have fennel on hand (or don’t like it), you can replace it with another 2-3 stalks of thinly sliced celery. And maybe add a little chopped flat-leaf parsley.
- If you want to add a little more hint of onion, simply add a little thinly sliced red onion, green onion, or fresh chives.
- As for the nuts, walnuts can be traded out for toasted almonds or hazelnuts.
- And, if you are looking for an apple fennel salad recipe that isn’t made with a yoghurt dressing, then I recommend you try my Celery Salad with Apple and Fennel made with a dijon-lemon dressing. It’s a super delicious alternative!
Looking for other ideas on how use fennel or celery in salads?
Try one of these quick and easy recipes:
- Celery Salad with Apple & Blue Cheese
- Fenchel-Salat mit Caesar-Dressing
- Pear Fennel Salad with Sumac and Mint
- Salad with Smoked Salmon, Orange & Fennel
Apple Fennel Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 2 small fennel bulbs, quartered, cored and very thinly sliced
- 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced (stangensellerie)
- 150 g red seedless grapes, halved (1 cup)
- 2 small sweet-tart apples (e.g. Wellant or Braeburn), peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
- 50 g walnuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
For the yoghurt dressing:
- 125 g Greek yoghurt (or Skyr thick Icelandic Style Yogurt)
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds
- Pinch sea salt
Method
-
In large bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients (yogurt, maple syrup, lemon juice, mustard, nigella seeds, salt). Add the fennel, celery, grapes and apple. Toss until evenly coated. Some sprinkled with the toasted walnuts. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container the fridge and taste just as delicious served cold the next day.
- If using a mandoline to slice the fennel, you can simply half the fennel bulb and trim the end before slicing.
- Recipe inspired and adapted from Canadian Living magazine.
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