Celery, Apple and Hazelnut Salad

This celery salad is super fresh, crisp and zingy with its honey mustard dressing. A perfect balance of textures and flavour to keep you going back for more. It is addictive!

With winter growing darker and colder, I find that salads actually help keep me feeling bright and positive! I would have been making comfort foods and warm dishes during winter up until this year but have found a new love and appreciation for low carb, healthy meals that actually give me more energy and get me through the dark, cold and anxiety ridden days (who isn’t anxious and grumpy when we are starting our fourth wave of Covid right?).

No matter how many vegetables I try to pack into my lasagnes, pasta dishes and stews, they leave me feeling bloated and fuzzy essentially. Swapping out my heavy carb loaded diet has really made a huge difference to my life giving me more energy and a clearer mind. Of course, I do still eat lasagne, pasta and everything really but enjoy them now in moderation. We would have had pasta probably 5 days a week before, which really is overkill thinking back on it. But as a single working mum, whipping up a bowl of pasta most nights was just so easy.

Celery is a very under used ingredient in my opinion. I normally have a sad wilting looking celery at the back of the fridge because I usually buy it thinking ‘I should eat more celery’ and then I never do. Not now my friends, now I buy celery and instantly make this salad (adding celery slices to any salad really works). It is just so GOOD!

Crisp and crunchy celery, sweet apple, fragrant coriander and toasted hazelnuts make for a heavenly salad. I have eaten a bowl of this on its own for lunch but also like to have it on the side of my main meal (grilled meats and fish go with this beautifully). Whatever way you eat this, you won’t be disappointed.

CELERY, APPLE AND HAZELNUT SALAD

• 5 long stalks of celery, leaves included
• 1 red apple
• a generous handful of coriander, if you don’t like coriander I would think flat leaf parsley would also work
• 30 g hazelnuts, blanched or skin on

For the dressing:

• 2 tbsp good olive oil
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 level tsp Dijon mustard

THE HOW

Heat the oven to 160°C (fan oven) and place a baking tray in the oven to heat. Toast your hazelnuts for a few minutes until the skins are dry or if using blanched hazelnuts, until they are lightly golden. This should only take about 3-4 minutes so watch them carefully. Remove from the oven to cool.

Finely slice the celery stalks width ways and place in a bowl.

Slice the apple into 2 mm batons (julienne them), leaving the skin on for a pop of colour and discard the core. Add the apple to the celery.

Chop the coriander roughly, stalk and all and add to the celery and apple.

To make the dressing; in a cup or jug whisk all the dressing ingredients and season. Give it a taste; you may want to add a little extra maple or Dijon depending on your tastes.

If you use hazelnuts with skin on, after toasting them, lay them in a towel and give them a little rub to take off the extra skin. I like to leave some skin on for colour so I just give them a little rub down. Add them to the celery, apple and coriander.

Next drizzle over the dressing and give everything a good stir.

Enjoy!