This Apple Salad recipe is a delicious and easy-to-make side dish that combines fresh apples, celery, mini marshmallows, and walnuts in a creamy and tangy mayonnaise and sour cream dressing. Perfect for summer picnics and holiday meals, this salad is sure to impress your guests.
Crisp Apple Salad With Mayo
Our simple Apple Salad recipe is made using a mixture of firm, sweet Fuji apples and tart, slightly sour Granny Smith apples, combined with marshmallows, celery, and nuts, all coated in a creamy salad dressing.
This delicious salad may lack the lettuce and grapes of the classic Waldorf salad and is not your typical fruit salad tossed in a pudding or Cool Whip topping either; it is so much more than fresh produce and marshmallows doused in dressing and makes the a great side dish that you can enjoy with lunch or dinner.
While an apple walnut salad recipe prepared with produce, marshmallows, sour cream, and mayo sounds kind of strange, trust me when I tell you that this sweet and savory mixture is the perfect marriage of tastes and textures.
Apple salad recipes have no rules — there are a variety of ways to create a customized version filled with your favorite foods and salad dressing swaps.
Why We Love This Apple Salad Recipe
- Quick and easy to make in 20 minutes.
- Uses a handful of simple ingredients.
- Great recipe to feed a crowd and can easily be doubled or tripled.
- Cool and refreshing side dish that’s deliciously creamy with a crunch.
- Perfect for potlucks, picnics, barbecues, and summer parties.
Apple Salad Ingredients
- Fuji apples
- Granny Smith apples
- Lemon juice
- Miniature marshmallows
- Celery
- Walnuts
- Mayonnaise: I used Kraft Mayo but feel free to use your favorite brand.
- Sour cream
- Granulated sugar
Substitutions and Additions
- Make Without Walnuts: You can substitute any chopped nuts for the walnuts, like pecans, pistachios, macadamia nuts, or even pine nuts.
- Use Another Apple: I like to use both Fuji and Granny Smith apples in this recipe, but any crisp, crunchy apple will work well. Try making your salad with Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Jazz, Braeburn, or your favorite apple variety instead.
- Add-In Ideas: Feel free to add seedless grapes, dried cranberries, dried craisins, or dried, chopped apricots to your salad.
Recommended Tools
- Large bowl
- Small mixing bowl
- Whisk
How to Make Apple Salad
- Cut And Coat: Dice the apples, pour the lemon juice on top, and stir to coat. Stir in the mini marshmallows, celery, and walnuts to the coated apples.
- Make The Dressing: Whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, and sugar until the sugar is incorporated and begins to dissolve.
- Stir: Spoon the dressing over the salad and stir to coat all ingredients.
- Serve: Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Tips For Making Apple Salad
- You can substitute any chopped nuts for the walnuts. You can even use candied walnuts or pecans instead of plain nuts.
- Because of the dairy-based dressing, always keep this salad refrigerated.
- This salad should not be frozen.
How to Store Apple Salad
- To Store: Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
More Easy Summer Salad Recipes
Other Easy Side Dishes
- Parmesan Corn On The Cob
- KFC Coleslaw (Copycat)
- Chinese Chicken Salad
- Ramen Noodle Salad
- Ranch Potato Salad
- Loaded Baked Potato Salad
Apple Salad
Ingredients
- 3 medium-sized Fuji apples washed, cored, and diced
- 2 medium-sized Granny Smith apples washed, cored, and diced
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1¾ cups miniature marshmallows
- 1½ cups diced celery
- 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
- ½ cup mayonnaise your favorite brand, I used Kraft Mayo
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Instructions
- Add the diced Fuji and Granny Smith apples to a large salad bowl. Pour the lemon juice over the apples and stir to completely coat the apples.
- Add the miniature marshmallows, diced celery, and chopped walnuts to the coated apples. Stir to combine.
- Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, and granulated sugar to a small mixing bowl. Whisk until the sugar is completely incorporated and begins to dissolve.
- Spoon the dressing over the apple salad and stir to completely coat all the ingredients. Serve immediately.
Jenn’s Notes
- To Store: Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- You can substitute any chopped nuts for the walnuts. You can even use candied walnuts or pecans instead of plain nuts.
- Because of the dairy-based dressing, always keep this salad refrigerated.
- This salad should not be frozen.
My Mom made this salad for yrs only differences are she added sliced bananas, halved grapes & the colored marshmallows and didn’t use the sour cream in the sauce only miracle whip & little sugar.
Hi Hope! Thanks so much for sharing!
This LOOKS GREAT 👏🏼♥️Thanks FOR SHARING Jennifer 😊G-d♥️Bless