Freshened Up Walnut, Apple and Celery Salad for Family BBQ

I used to LOVE apple celery and walnut salads that you could but in little pots. The combination of crunchy sweet acidic apple, savory celery and nutty walnuts is one of my all time favorite. However whenever you buy them they are drowned in creamy mayonnaise style dressing... ughhh.  Not only does this dressing often contain dairy or eggs, making it unfriendly for vegans and lactose intolerant, but full of saturated unhealthy fat and god knows what, sugar, preservatives, etc etc...

Fresher lighter better.

So when asked to make a salad for our Family's BBQ tonight I thought I would take this salad and make it vegan friendly and a lot more healthier and in my opinion fresher as its not drowned in creamy dressing. My version has sweet sour dressing with apple cider vinegar which is meant to curb sugar cravings and is sugar free as I use agave.

Freshened Up Walnut, Apple and Cerlery Salad

Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks of celery
1 small sweet onion
1 large Granny smith (you can use other eating apples but prepare for a lesser salad, granny smiths rule)
1/4 cup (heaped) of walnuts
Hand full of raisins
3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp of agave syrup (or honey)
tsp of whole grain mustard
Salt and pepper

-Mix together 3 tbsp of the agave (reserving one tbsp), apple cider vinegar, mustard in the bottom of your salad bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Your dressing should be slightly more salty and sour then you would like it as when as the water from the salad will neutralize it slightly.
- Dice apple, celery and onion and add to you dressing, toss so all the salad is coated. The vinegar in the dressing will stop the apples browning and partially cook the onion so it is less harsh.. clever ;)
-Lightly crush walnuts (I used a pestle and mortar) and add to a hot pan with a pinch of salt.

Me crushing some nuts

- When the nuts are lightly toasted add the reserved tbsp of agave stir around your pan for 30 seconds more and remove walnuts from heat into a bowl or plate to cool.
- Once cool add the walnuts with the raisins and toss. Cover and refrigerate till needed, the longer you leave this salad the more the flavors 'get to know each other' and the tastier it will be (like left over chilli and curry)