I’ve made variations of this salad for years and it’s always delicious, but especially good with newly harvested Autumn apples. Any apple will do, red, green or yellow. For this recipe I had on hand a Russet apple, which is an old-fashioned apple in England. If you’d like to focus on the main dish, I found that mixing up the dressing in advance and placing the matchstick cut apples into the dressing keeps them from enzymatic browning - I’ve done this an hour before eating and it’s as good as freshly chopped apple at the last minute before tossing the greens. Up to you, but this makes it perfect for Thanksgiving when you need something that will still be crisp and fresh when the meal is served.

Salad:

1 head lettuce

1 apple

optional: blue cheese crumbles

Dressing:

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 Tablespoon tahini

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

6 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Method:

1. Wash and dry the lettuce in a salad spinner. Decide if you’d like torn leaves or stack leaves and shred thinly.

2. Slice the apple into disks 1/8-inch in width. Then stack the disks and slice into matchsticks.

3. Mix up the salad dressing ingredients in a salad bowl and toss in the sliced apples.

4. In a large salad bowl toss all the ingredients (including optional blue cheese crumbles) together and enjoy!