The elegant Waldorf salad was first created by Oscar Tschirky, Maitre d’ at the Waldorf Hotel on Fifth Ave in New York . This magnificent hotel still exists and is called the Waldorf Astoria.  The recipe is over 100 years old. The original salad was made of apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Several years later chopped walnuts were added. My skinny recipe includes most of these plus many modern day, healthy ingredients.  Even tossed in my skinny blue cheese dressing, this Waldorf salad contains 168 calories and 10 grams fat. The full fat version is concerning at 479 calories, and a scary 43 grams of fat!  You’ll be happy with 2 tablespoons of this satisfying dressing on your salad.  A typical fattening salad like this will use at least 4 tablespoons per serving.  That’s where the calories and fat really add up and you just don’t need that much dressing.
Ingredients
- â…” cup Skinny Blue Cheese Dressing (see recipe below after Skinny Facts)
- 1 cup red grapes, cut in half
- 1 red apple, cored and diced
- 1 tart green apple, cored and diced
- 2 celery stalks, sliced (~1 cup)
- 1 small fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and diced
- â…“ cup toasted walnuts, chopped
- 12 butter head lettuce leaves (Boston lettuce), chopped
Instructions
- Prepare the Skinny Blue Cheese Dressing recipe below.
- In a large bowl, toss together â…” cup dressing, grapes, apples, celery, fennel and walnuts.
- To assemble the salads: place the chopped lettuce among 6 salad plates. Â Mound salad mixture on leaves and serve at once.
Notes
Serves 6 (each serving, 1/6 of recipe)
Food Facts
Butter head lettuce, also known as Boston or Bibb, is a member of the sunflower family. Fennel, also called anise, is a celery-like stalk rising from a bulbous base and terminating in feathery green tips. Both the stalks and tops have a delicate licorice flavor. Fennel is believed to be native to the Mediterranean basin. Fennel is known for its tasty bulb and aromatic leaves. Bulb fennel has only been popular in America for about the past 15 years.
Weight Watchers (old points) 3
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUSÂ 5 Â
Â
Skinny Blue Cheese Dressing
This creamy, chunky, extremely fattening dressing is usually off limits if you are trying to be healthy. Why? Because regular blue cheese dressing packs 160 calories and 17 grams of fat for just 2 tablespoons.  Great news though my skinny blue cheese dressing happily comes in at 62 calories, 6 grams of fat and 2 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS for 2 tablespoons. You’ll be saving about 50 calories and almost 7 grams of fat for just one tablespoon! There is still plenty chunks of cheese. My skinny trick is to use both blue cheese and reduced-fat cottage cheese. Your eyes see a whole lot of chunks and thinks it’s just blue cheese. Sneaky!  This dreamy dressing is heavenly on salads and works wonders as a dip for veggies and reduced-fat chips.
Prep Time:Â 10 minutes
Ingredients ¾ cup Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing or ¾ cup of a store-bought reduced-fat ranch dressing, see shopping tip ¼ cup fat-free sour cream or fat-free plain yogurt 3 tablespoons Champagne or sherry wine vinegar 1 teaspoon garlic, chopped (from a jar), or 2 cloves chopped ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons blue cheese, crumbled ¼ cup reduced-fat cottage cheese ⅛  teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Instructions 1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing, sour cream, vinegar and garlic. 2. Add the blue cheese, cottage cheese and pepper. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour until thickened. 3. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. 4. Blue Cheese Dressing will keep for 1 week. Makes 1½ cups (each serving, 2 tablespoons)
Food Fact
Blue Cheese is a class of cheese injected with mold to form the blue veining that gives it the distinctive flavor.
Healthy Benefit
Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing, fat-fat sour cream and reduced- fat cottage cheese add bone strengthening calcium to this dressing.
Shopping Tips
If you want to use a store bought ranch dressing we like Trader Joe’s Reduced-fat Parmesan Ranch or Light House Reduced-fat Ranch dressing. Both are a fresh dressing sold in the refrigerator section. You’ll find crumbled blue cheese in containers in most supermarkets.
Weight Watchers (old points) 2
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUSÂ 2 Â
Food Facts
Butter head lettuce, also known as Boston or Bibb, is a member of the sunflower family. Fennel, also called anise, is a celery-like stalk rising from a bulbous base and terminating in feathery green tips. Both the stalks and tops have a delicate licorice flavor. Fennel is believed to be native to the Mediterranean basin. Fennel is known for its tasty bulb and aromatic leaves. Bulb fennel has only been popular in America for about the past 15 years.
Weight Watchers (old points) 3
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUSÂ 5 Â
| SKINNY FACTS: for 1 salad including dressing 168 cal, 10g fat, 19g carbs, 4g protein, 4g fiber, 140 mg sodium, 7g sugar |
| FAT FACTS: Waldorf Salad including dressing 479 cal, 43g fat, 19g carbs, 7g protein, 4g fiber, 374 mg sodium, 17g sugar |
Ingredients ¾ cup Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing or ¾ cup of a store-bought reduced-fat ranch dressing, see shopping tip ¼ cup fat-free sour cream or fat-free plain yogurt 3 tablespoons Champagne or sherry wine vinegar 1 teaspoon garlic, chopped (from a jar), or 2 cloves chopped ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons blue cheese, crumbled ¼ cup reduced-fat cottage cheese ⅛  teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Instructions 1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing, sour cream, vinegar and garlic. 2. Add the blue cheese, cottage cheese and pepper. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour until thickened. 3. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. 4. Blue Cheese Dressing will keep for 1 week. Makes 1½ cups (each serving, 2 tablespoons)
Food Fact
Blue Cheese is a class of cheese injected with mold to form the blue veining that gives it the distinctive flavor.
Healthy Benefit
Nancy’s Skinny Ranch Dressing, fat-fat sour cream and reduced- fat cottage cheese add bone strengthening calcium to this dressing.
Shopping Tips
If you want to use a store bought ranch dressing we like Trader Joe’s Reduced-fat Parmesan Ranch or Light House Reduced-fat Ranch dressing. Both are a fresh dressing sold in the refrigerator section. You’ll find crumbled blue cheese in containers in most supermarkets.
Weight Watchers (old points) 2
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUSÂ 2 Â
| SKINNY FACTS: for 2 tablespoons 62 cal, 6g fat, 2g carbs, 1g protein, 0g fiber, 10mg sodium, 1g sugar |
| FAT FACTS: Marie’s Chunky Blue Cheese dressing for 2 tablespoons 160 cal, 17g fat, 0g carbs, 1g protein, 0g fiber, 170 mg sodium, 0g sugar |
Skinny Facts
Serving: 0.16recipeCalories: 168kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 4gFat: 10gSodium: 140mgFiber: 4gSugar: 7gPlus Points: 5
