watermelon radishes, candied walnuts, and the best salad ever
I finally made a visit last weekend to a friend’s restaurant. It’s in Bushwick, a neighborhood as close to the middle of nowhere as you’ll find in Brooklyn. They serve some delicious seasonally inspired food that definitely makes it worth the trip. One of the appetizers I tried was paired with a watermelon radish salad that inspired me to make a nice salad for dinner the next night. Too often salads in our house consist of merely lettuce, cherry tomatoes, dressing and croutons. Making a truly special salad requires a little more effort and adding these candied walnuts are always just the thing. The nuts are tossed in a hot sugar syrup infused with spices, then baked in the oven until crisp. While they’re baking I like to give them a stir or two, to encourage the sugar to form crystals which form an extra crisp coating. These went into a salad along with some thinly sliced tart apples, watermelon radish, golden beets, pomegranate seeds, and fresh lettuce with a sherry vinaigrette. Other nuts will work with this recipe, but walnuts and pecans seem to work best.
Candied Walnuts (makes about 2 cups)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 cups walnut halves or pieces
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bring the sugar, water and spice to a boil, then stir in the nuts. Stir them together for a few seconds, turn off the heat, and remove the nuts from the syrup directly onto a baking sheet lined with lightly oiled parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until they are crisp and any syrup on the pan is bubbling. Stir the nuts once or twice while baking if desired. The more you stir the nuts during baking, the thicker the sugar coating will be. Remove them from the oven, give them one last stir, then let them cool completely. They can be used in salads, desserts, or just for a snack. Different spices may be used as well – try cayenne or chipotle pepper for a spicy version.
Sherry Vinaigrette (makes about 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 small garlic clove, pressed or grated
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco
Whisk all ingredients together. Dress the salad as needed and refrigerate any unused dressing.
that plate! so gorgeous!
YUM! can’t wait to try these recipes!!
that looks delicious – and the plating is beautiful. i’m making this for dinner tonight!
This looks too pretty to eat!
MMMM…. it looks so fresh and tasty
Candied nuts are great with any salad.
Oh yum, it looks delicious. Pretty styling too.
It’s like a piece of art. Looks so good! Yum!
Beautiful
Gorgeous plate and looks sooo delicious. Love your photos, beautiful!
Best Regards
Rowaida
Lovely in every way
it does look like it’s the best salad ever! so pretty.
Looks and sounds good. Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Thanks for the lovely pictures of the best salad ever! It has a little of everything, and those watermelon radishes are really beautiful…they remind me of watermelon tourmaline. I really enjoy your recipes, so thanks again for sharing. A salad is just what we need here in blustery WI today where the winds are between 35 – 45 mph, and may possible go higher. The wind actually blew the slide off the playstructure this morning just before the boys went to school. Looking forward to making the candied walnuts and vinegrette dressing this week.
Whoa. That salad is ridiculously pretty. Good Lord.
This looks so gorgeous! I love walnuts. Really LOVE walnuts!
So beautiful! I’m eager to make this work of art as well! Tell me, how did you prepare the beets before you added them to the salad?
Yes, this looks like the best salad ever! Beautiful.
Thank you, that looks absolutely delicious. I’ll have to try it this week!
Yum! Nice, Mark!
Most beautiful salad ever. So funny, we just visited a friend in bushwick that lives on the same block as northeast kingdom and he said it was great. will definitely have to go back and try it now that it’s been mark (+jenna?) approved!
i’m drooling…
doesn’t hurt that the colors are beautiful as well.
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