McDonald's enlisted Destiny's Child, Venus Williams, and Bob Greene (Oprah's trainer) to kick off its balanced lifestyles campaign in the spring of 2005, starting with this salad and the tagline "Get a fruit buzz." Most of the McDonald's fruit and walnut salad recipe is no big secret: two kinds of sliced apples, red seedless grapes, and low-fat vanilla yogurt. If there is a secret ingredient it's the candied walnuts which we can clone from scratch using honey, peanut oil, sugar and vanilla.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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Candied Walnuts
- 1 teaspoon peanut oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
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- 2 small Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 16 slices each
- 2 small Gala apples, cored and cut into 16 slices each
- 40 red seedless grapes
- 3/4 cup Dannon low-fat vanilla yogurt
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Restaurant/BrandMcDonald's
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Instructions
1. Make the candied walnuts by combining the peanut oil, honey, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium saute pan over medium heat in the order listed. When the mixture begins to bubble, add the chopped walnuts and stir constantly until the sugar begins to smoke and/or caramelize. Immediately turn off the heat and keep stirring the nuts so that they do not burn. After a minute of stirring off the heat, pour the nuts out onto a plate. Toss the nuts as they cool so they don't stick together.
2. When the nuts have cooled, build each salad by mixing 8 slices of Granny Smith apple, 8 slices of Gala apple, 10 grapes, 3 tablespoons of yogurt, and 3 tablespoons of candied walnuts. Stir and serve.
Makes 4 servings.
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I'm Todd Wilbur,
Chronic Food Hacker
For 30 years I've been deconstructing America's most iconic brand-name foods to make the best original clone recipes for you to use at home. Welcome to my lab.