Tangled Apple, Pistachio, and Golden Raisin Salad

It's transition time in the world of food. Peaches, corn, tomatoes and zucchini battle apples and pumpkin for our attention on food blogs, twitter, and pinterest. And I'll be honest—I'm torn. I'm totally an autumn kinda girl, willing the cooler air, football games, and apple orchards in with all my might. But, there's still about a month left of summer, and now is the time for trying to keep up with the summer harvest.

There are worse dilemmas to have.

I think August and September just have to be transitional months. A little bit of summer and a little bit of fall. That's a compromise I can work with. Today I'm looking forward to fall with a fresh, simple apple salad that lends itself nicely to cool weather lunches and potlucks.

OXO recently offered me a chance to try their new hand-held spiralizer, and since buying a spiralizer has always been at the back of my mind, I accepted. This particular spiralizer fits easily in your hand, plus it's part of the Good Grips line, so it's easy to get a good hold on it. And at only $14.99, it's extremely affordable.

I had far too much fun cranking zucchini, cucumber, and a beet or two into long, sproingy noodles. I will have recipes featuring some of those things, plus sweet potatoes and some fun root vegetables in the future—but today, apples are the star.

As you can probably guess, the kids love the spiralizer just as much as I do. So, I put my twelve year old to "work" preparing apple stands for this salad.

Simply trim down your fruit (or vegetable) if needed, then center over the spiralizer. The lid doubles as a gripper that you just push down and turn to send your produce through.

With steady pressure and turning motion, you're left with a pile of tangled "noodles"...and the urge to spiralize anything you can get your hands on.

The blades are extremely sharp, so if you enlist help from your kids, please do so under supervision or reminder the older kids about knife/blade safety.

This salad is delicious, easy, and fun to make. But it's worth noting that if you pick up a hand-held spiralizer today,  you can use it to churn out some awesome zucchini and cucumber noodles with all the summer produce that you're wondering how to use up right about now.

Tangled Apple, Pistachio, and Golden Raisin Salad

This fun and simple appetizer salad recipe features spiralized apple "noodles" that are tangled with plump golden raisins and salty pistachios.

by Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Keywords: salad appetizer vegetarian apples raisins pistachios Greek Yogurt honey autumn

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

• 1 freshly squeezed lemon juice + more as needed
• 6-8 small crisp apples
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup shelled, roasted and salted pistachios, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons honey Greek yogurt (or plain Greek yogurt mixed with 2 teaspoons honey)
• pinch of salt
• pinch of ground white pepper

Instructions

Put the lemon juice in the bottom of a medium bowl.

Cut a thin slice from the bottom of each apple to even it out. With the apples standing upright on that cut edge, cut thin slices off of all four edges to (basically) square them off. If there is a lot of skin showing, trim most of it away (so it doesn't clog up the spiralizer).

Use a spiralizer, such as the OXO Good Grips Hand Held Spiralizer, to turn them all into long ribbons; add them to the bowl with the lemon juice, tossing to keep them from browning, as you work.

Add raisins and pistachios. Drizzle the yogurt (or yogurt mixed with honey) over the top then sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss everything gently to combine.

Serve immediately.

Featured in this post 

OXO Hand-Held Spiralizer ($14.99): Spiralized vegetables are a fun and delicious way to incorporate more vegetables into your favorite recipes, or the perfect opportunity to try out new dishes. OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Spiralizer creates uniform, curly noodles from zucchinis, cucumbers, and other long vegetables for pasta-like dishes, salads and garnishes. The open-blade design also accommodates round vegetables like potatoes and beets for curly fries, frittatas and more. The food holder keeps hands safe and is easy to grip while turning down to the end of vegetables to minimize waste. The BPA-free Hand-Held Spiralizer is dishwasher safe and the food holder acts as a cap for safe storage.

I received this product at no charge; I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.