Love salty, sweet, and refreshing salads?
This celery apple salad is light, crunchy, simple to make, and so flavorful.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Try adding celery, fresh herbs, nuts, and dried fruits, and you’re on the right track to a super healthy salad. This celery apple salad is just what you need.
This post is all about the perfect celery apple salad recipe. It includes just a few simple ingredients, but is so big on flavor and textures, you’ll love it!
Celery and apples are a match made in heaven. If you haven’t tried this combo before, what are you waiting for?
Why you’d love this salad
- Refreshing & Crunchy – Who doesn’t love a crunchy salad? Crispy celery, sweet-tangy apples, and crunchy walnuts make every bite different and exciting. Combine them with fresh herbs and dried fruit, and you’ve got yourself the perfect bite.
- Healthy & Nourishing – It’s packed with fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats from apples, celery, walnuts, and dried fruits, all in a light, refreshing lemon olive oil dressing.
- Sweet & Savory Balance – The sweetness of the dried fruit and apples combined with the herbs and nuts creates the perfect flavor contrast.
- Super Easy to Make – Comes together in minutes with simple ingredients, yet leaves a big impression.
Celery Apple Salad Ingredients
- Apples: You can use any apple variety you like or have on hand. It’s a great opportunity to play with the flavor of this salad even more. You can use tangy ones or sweeter ones depending on your own preference. I always recommend trying a slice before adding it to the salad to make sure it’s tasty and the texture is right.
- Celery: I like to use the ‘heart,’ or the inner leaves of the celery for salads. I find that they are sweeter and more delicate than the outer leaves. Don’t get me wrong, the outer leaves are just as delicious, I just prefer using them for cooking. Just make sure to cut the stalks very finely, so you don’t have to worry about the fibers being noticeable. Also, I love using the inner leaves – they add even more flavor and texture.
- Herbs: Making this salad is a great opportunity to use up the herbs in your fridge. You can do any combo you like; I find that parsley, mint, and cilantro are perfect for me, and I always have them in the fridge or in the garden. Whatever you do, add mint – it adds so much freshness and takes this salad to the next level.
- Nuts: Walnuts combined with apples and celery are a classic. You can also use pecans, almonds, pine nuts, or whatever nuts you like. Feel free to mix and match to create even more flavors and textures.
- Dried fruit: Cranberries and dried apricots are a great addition to that sweet-tangy vibe this salad is all about. You can also use raisins, dried cherries, dried figs, or whatever works for you. Can we take a second to mention how beautiful the cranberries and apricots are together? The colors are unreal.
- Spices: Salt, no pepper, and a sprinkle of sumac. To me, black pepper doesn’t work in this one, but sumac, which is a popular Middle Eastern spice, adds a great tangy flavor and brightens everything up.
- Lemon juice: USE FRESH LEMON JUICE! I cannot say this enough – it is nothing like the store-bought lemon juice.
- Olive oil: As always, use good quality olive oil. You can really taste it in this salad, and it adds such a great aroma and flavor.
- Optional: Adding honey to the dressing. As is, this salad is more on the tangy side. If you’d like to make the sweetness shine through more, add a teaspoon of honey to the dressing and mix well.
Optional Add-ins
This salad is great on its own, but if you want to get creative, here are some things that would go great with it:
- Feta cheese or goat cheese
- Pomegranate seeds
- Fennel
- Grapes
- Toasted pumpkin seeds
- Orange fillets
- Sliced avocado
Serving Suggestions
If you’d like to make this salad into a meal of its own, or you’d like it to accompany a protein as a side, here are some ideas for you:
- Toss in some cooked quinoa, pearl barley, bulgur, or couscous.
- Serve it on some yogurt.
- Serve it alongside roasted salmon. Fish goes really well with refreshing salads, and you can add in some citrus and fennel, and you’ve got yourself a delicious meal.
Celery Apple Salad | Tips
- Oxidizing: Whenever you make salads with fruit or veggies that can oxidize (like apples), make sure to dress them with lemon juice before adding them to the salad. Also, this will prevent them from browning and help keep that beautiful white color.
- Storage: This salad is best right after you dress it. If you make it beforehand, just make sure to keep the dressing on the side and mix everything together at the last minute.
If you’re a fan of herb-packed salads or looking to try more, I recommend trying my tabouli salad recipe. Just like this celery apple salad, tabouli is refreshing, light, packed with flavor, and extremely good for you.
My Tabouli Salad Recipe
This tabouli salad is packed with fresh herbs and dressed in a light lemon dressing. It’s a Middle Eastern classic and a must-try! Don’t miss out on this amazing salad!
Cooking with Oli:
As you can see in the video (attached in the recipe card), for some reason, Oli was quite annoyed with the celery. I don’t really know the reason – maybe he just woke up extra sassy that day and the celery happened to be the poor victim? Anyways, I’m glad it wasn’t me. All in all it was a great day in the Nunioli kitchen. I hope you enjoy the video and try this delicious celery apple salad for your next dinner!
Celery Apple Salad
Ingredients
- 1 heart of celery, finely chopped (or 3-4 larger stalks)
- 1 apple, sliced (Granny Smith or any variety you like)
- 1 handful of parsley leaves, chopped
- ½ handful of mint leaves, chopped
- ½ handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
- ½ cup dried fruit, chopped (a mix of cranberries and apricots)
- ½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
- A pinch of sumac, sprinkled on top
Dressing
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2½ tbsp lemon juice
- Salt, to taste
- 1 tsp honey, optional
Instructions
- Finely chop the celery, slice the apple, and toss with lemon juice to prevent browning. Chop the herbs, dried fruit, and walnuts.
- In a large bowl, combine the celery, apple, herbs, dried fruit, and walnuts.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and honey (if using).
- Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat evenly. Plate the salad and sprinkle sumac on top.
- Enjoy immediately after dressing!
Now that you have the perfect celery apple salad recipe, what are you waiting for? If you haven’t tried the celery-apple combo before, this salad is a great way to try it. It’s so quick to make – from the moment you decide to make it to the first bite, it’ll take less than 30 minutes. Don’t forget to try some of the add-ins and serving suggestions I recommend in this post and let me know how you like it!
