Apple Salad with Gruyere and Hazelnuts

Let’s just start today’s conversation with the bold statement: I am addicted to going to restaurants.

I know. I know.

What kind of food blogger am I? Shouldn’t I be cooking all day and all night?

Let me just start by explaining my philosophy about food (that I typically pronounce to a new acquaintance within 10 minutes of meeting).  Cooking should be a creative experience and NOT a chore.  Cooking daily would probably kill me.  Or kill my love of food.  Because I would be getting home at 7:30pm, starving, and probably throw together some concoction of bizarre ingredients or pre-packaged goods and then I’d just be depressed about my life even though my stomach would be full.

No.

I will let someone else prepare my meals during the week so I can feel refreshed and ready to create on the weekends.

So, as you might imagine, between all these restaurant trips I have developed quite the list of “recipes to recreate.”  This is one of those recipes.  The original is from Soda and Swine here in San Diego, a restaurant that specializes in making different varieties of meatballs.  The meatballs, in my opinion, are somewhat “A-Okay” (the term my grandma uses for “well, this was decidedly mediocre”), but the sides are awesome.  Mac and cheese, polenta, dirty fries… oh yes.. those dirty fries.  OH yeah, and this recipe- their amazing apple salad.

I just couldn’t get their apple salad out of my head.

So I made it at home.

It’s one of those recipes that is completely about finding the perfect balance between quality individual ingredients.  There is very little going on in this bowl except a genius combination of the best flavors. The classic paring of tart apple with the nutty gruyere… mmm!

Gets me every time.

If you can’t already tell from the pictures, this salad is mostly apple, but accented with various complementary flavors.  The apples give it a nice sweet and tart flavor, the arugula hits it with some spice, the cheese and hazelnuts with the nutty sweetness, celery a little bitter crunch…. and all doused in a healthy amount of aromatic olive oil.  Argh, I am obsessed!

You need to give this one a try.  (Unless it’s a weeknight, in which case, you have a foodie pass, love, Sarah).

Apple Salad with Gruyere and Hazelnuts

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

• 2 large Granny Smith Apples sliced thin
• 1 stalk Celery sliced thin
• 2 oz. Gruyere cheese cubed
• 1/2 cup toasted Hazelnuts roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced chives
• 1/2 cup fresh Baby Arugula
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons good Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Instructions

 

• Pour lemon juice into a bowl. As you are slicing apples, add them to the bowl and coat well to avoid browning. Add all other ingredients to the apples. Finish with extra virgin olive oil. Toss until all the ingredients are well coated with oil.
• Distribute evenly between 2 bowls.