Fall Harvest Salad

Earlier this month, California Walnuts invited me to travel up to the beautiful northern region of this wonderful state to receive the definitive walnut experience. In just a few short days I was able to see, taste, and learn about all aspects of the walnuts’ journey from being harvested and cleaned to being processed and packaged. It was truly an honor to get to witness this entire procedure firsthand. Walnuts frequent my kitchen, but after this trip, I left with a renewed appreciation and excitement for them. I was so eager to get home and start working with them again, and thus this fall harvest salad with a creamy walnut dressing was born.

My husband actually spent over a decade of his childhood in northern California, only half an hour south of where I was. He’s always described growing up there as being surrounded by natural beauty at every turn—long country roads, picturesque lakes, gigantic mountains, and countless orchards of all kinds. So, getting the chance to spend some time exploring a walnut orchard, one just like he talked about, was by far one of my favorite parts of the trip. Traversing through the middle of the orchard is like entering another realm. You’re canopied completely by incalculable branches, the sun shining rays through the greenery above like something out of an illustrious fantasy. It was so fun.

Here we saw the process of harvesting walnuts, and while this was something with which I wasn’t familiar, it’s simply incredible. The first stage is getting the walnuts off the tree, a task for which a machine called a shaker is used. It’s the most appropriately named thing you could think of, and it certainly lives up to it. It’s a huge contraption, sort of like a cross between a forklift and a tractor, and it grabs the trunk with long metal arms and shakes it to death until all the walnuts still wrapped in their bright green husks descend rapidly from the tree. The second stage is collecting the fallen walnuts, and this where a machine called the sweeper comes in. It passes over the orchard floor scooping all the walnuts up to begin their journey of being de-husked, cleaned, and dried, then transported off to a plant to be processed and packaged.

In addition to witnessing the harvesting process, I also learned so much about the health benefits of walnuts while on this trip. Not only do they have protein (4 grams per ounce) and fiber (2 grams per ounce), but they are also are the only nut with a significant source of the plant-based omega-3’s alpha linolenic acid (2.5 grams per ounce). They’re also a Heart Check Certified food by the American Heart Association. This just made me want to incorporate walnuts into my recipes all the more, and this desire was further amplified as a result of enjoying all the amazing meals prepared on the trip. One meal we had was setup in the middle of the gorgeous orchard, and a spectacular toasted walnut salad served as inspiration for my creamy walnut dressing. The walnut is truly so versatile and surprising, and this was proven again and again on this trip.

Creating this salad after my journey up north was so fun, and I was inspired to make something refreshing and seasonally appropriate that placed the walnut’s strength at center stage. I landed on a delicious dressing, and it was absolutely transformative to an already great salad. I blitzed my walnuts with some olive oil, sherry vinegar, and a few other ingredients and ended up with the creamiest of all dressings. If you’re looking for one of the best ways to enjoy one of the best nuts, I encourage you to make this dressing and add it to your favorite salad. I used sweet figs, tart apples, and refreshing fennel in mine as the flavors worked so well with the walnuts, but experiment with what you like best and have fun!

Thank you to California Walnuts for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

Serves 3-4

4 cups mixed greens

1 cup roughly chopped radicchio

½ a large honey crisp apple, thinly sliced

1 heaping cup thinly sliced fennel

4-6 fresh figs, quartered

3-4 tbs toasted chopped walnuts, divided

1/2 cup walnuts

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tbs sherry vinegar

2 1/2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2-3 cracks fresh pepper

Method

Add the walnuts, olive oil, sherry vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper to a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Taste, and add additional salt and pepper as needed. If a slightly more acidic dressing is desired, simply add an extra splash of vinegar and blend to incorporate. Yields ¾ cup.

To a large bowl add greens, radicchio, apple slices, fennel, figs, and 2 tbs of chopped walnuts. Drizzle a few spoonfuls of the dressing over the top and toss to combine. Add as much or as little dressing as preferred. There will likely be dressing leftover, so you can store that in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Transfer the salad to a serving platter, or you can leave it in the same bowl, and garnish with remaining chopped walnuts. If available, sprinkle the salad with a bit of flaky sea salt and enjoy.