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I’m finally branching out from pumpkin. 😉
Apple is the new flavor on the block. I live in Upstate South Carolina about 30 minutes from the North Carolina line, and North Carolina is known for its good apples. Every year we go get our supply of apples from a place called “The Apple Barn,” a nondescript open-air apple-sorting building located right off the interstate. The Apple Barn has all kinds of apple varieties, and they often have seconds – apples with slight blemishes – for a great price. A few spots never hurt anyone, so we usually get those for making applesauce, apple crisps, and just slicing and eating. Granny Smith is one of our favorite varieties; it’s a firm green apple with a great flavor, and it holds up well for baking. When we use Granny Smith apples to make applesauce, we don’t even add any sugar or sweetener – I love my applesauce on the tart side!
I used Granny Smith apples in this apple salad for a great crunch. You can feel free to use whatever apple variety you enjoy, and please adjust the sweetener to your own taste. As I said, I don’t mind my apples tart, so I didn’t add a lot of sweetener to this recipe.
This apple salad recipe is based off of an apple salad that I remember eating at church carry-ins over the years. It involves peanut butter, but combining peanut butter (fats) and apples (carbs)Â creates a crossover for Trim Healthy Mamas – still healthy, but not as weight-loss-promoting as sticking with a single fuel. Enter defatted peanut flour. It’s exactly what it sounds like: flour made from peanuts minus the usual fat. I prefer the Protein Plus brand from Netrition (here) or Amazon (here). I also added some cinnamon for a touch of autumn flavor.
As I mentioned in the Notes section of the recipe below, sometimes I enjoy replacing half the Greek yogurt with low-fat cottage cheese for a bit of texture. Cottage cheese has less tang to it as well, so it’s a little creamier.
This apple salad will keep for a few hours, but it’s best served immediately, especially if you use apples that turn brown quickly (the sweeter the apple, the quicker this will happen because of the high sugar content). The Granny Smith apples I used stay nice for awhile, especially when tossed with some lemon juice.
PS – there’s an apple crisp recipe in my cookbook!
Question (comment below): what’s your favorite apple variety?
Be sure to check out the Notes section of the recipe for answers to FAQs! Check out the links in the recipe to see products that I use and recommend.
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my fall recipes
- all my E dessert recipes
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Cookbook preorder will only be open through October 31st, so grab your copy at the special price of $19.99 now while you can! Heads-up: international ordering should be opening up today! You’ll have a week to snag the preorder price.
- 2½ c. chopped apples of choice*
- 2 tsp. lemon juice
- -
- 1 c. low-fat Greek yogurt**
- 3 T. defatted peanut flour
- 2 T. half and half
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 doonks THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder (or more, to taste)(a doonk is 1/32 tsp.)
- Toss the chopped apple with the lemon juice.
- Whisk the second section of ingredients in a separate bowl until smooth. Fold in the chopped apples and mix well to coat. Taste and add more sweetener if desired (amount may vary according to the sweetness of the apples you used). Serve immediately.
**For more texture and a little less tang, you can substitute half of this with low-fat cottage cheese.
Suggested Products:
- THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
- Defatted Peanut Flour
- Defatted Peanut Flour (Amazon)
- THM Defatted Peanut Flour
Hello Miss Briana!!
I am in love with your recipes 😀
I am new to THM…and just having a hard time understanding the “S” and “E” differences. So I am wondering… if I substitute Almond flour for the Peanut flour, and use double fermented Kefir instead of the Greek Yogurt…would it still qualify as and “E” ??
Thank you in advance for helping me to understand this system ^_^
~ Amie
I’m so glad you enjoy the recipes! As far as fuel types go, defatted peanut flour is a Fuel Pull and can go with anything because it’s neutral, while almond flour is an S fuel because it contains a lot of fat. So swapping the two wouldn’t work from a fuel type standpoint, and the taste/texture isn’t an even swap either. Double fermented low fat kefir can work in any setting as well, but since it’s a lot more liquidy than Greek yogurt I wouldn’t recommend using it in this recipe. 🙂
Briana,
Is there any substitute for peanut flour.
Any type of “peanut” product gives me terrible gout.
I have made it several time simply not useing peanut flour. Is this the reason the dressing is kind of runny?
Hi Sylvia! I’m afraid I don’t know of a great substitute for peanut flour that would have the same nutritional info. You could use 1-2 tablespoons of natural almond butter instead but that would put this into THM Crossover mode. Yes, leaving out the peanut flour is probably why your dressing is runny, since the flour is pretty dry and soaks up moisture. You could try reducing the half and half or leaving it out altogether and see if that helps. 🙂
Thanks so much for a quick response. My daughter and I absolutely love your recipes.
Hi, Briana, I really appreciate your recipes and am looking forward to trying this one. We have an apple tree in our yard which yielded very well this year, so I am writing down all of your apple recipes in an effort to use our apples in a variety of different ways.
I am wondering, though, if the Greek yogurt used in this recipe should be low fat?
Yes, use low-fat Greek yogurt. 🙂 I’m sorry; I should’ve specified that.
I made this apple salad for lunch today. It was delicious!! I used half cottage cheese and half yogurt and added 2 T. Gentle sweet besides the stevia. I greatly enjoy your recipes! You have a talent!:)
We love all varieties of apples but a new favorite for us is Ginger Gold. It’s only available for a short time up here in the Northeast so we fill up on then while we can!
Thanks for an apple recipe, Briana !
Granny Smith is my favorite as I can use the fruit up to ten months a year, straight from the tree, in a good year. Starting with tiny little extra tart ones which I can see are codling moth-infested, very early in the season. My husband enjoys them in a ‘crisp’ dessert. I love them raw. Apparently the skins of apples (unsprayed !) are great for health, can’t remember why !, so now I chew through the skins as well.
This looks like a great dish! I love Gala apples, while Honeycrisp are my husband’s favorite!
Hi Briana,
I’ve found that Greek yogurt keeps apples from browning if you toss them in right after chopping. No need for lemon juice. 🙂
I tried the Apple salad. I didn’t have quite a cup of plain Greek yogurt (bout 3/4), so I filled it up with fatfree cottage cheese. (Since u suggested using 1/2 of each anyway for more texture) And used a PBfit peanut flour from Walmart(just what I had). Mixed the rest of the ingredients and tried it with Honey crisp apples, which is a fav of ours, but unfortunately the dip(aka salad) did not turn out well I’m sorry to say. Maybe it was the type of ingredients I used,i don’t know, but even my kids didn’t like it. Sorry. I really wanted to like it, but I just didn’t. Hope I didn’t hurt too many feelings. Just being honest. I will still continue tho to try your other recipes, which I look forward too. Congrats on the cookbook!
Interesting. I’m sorry you didn’t like it! You may wish to try a different sweetener next time, or add more sweetener. Some people don’t think I use enough, and some people’s taste buds don’t care for stevia. 🙂
I am jealous. I can’t eat an apple unless it’s cooked into mush. I miss crunchy apples so much this time of year….
I love apples…all types. I’m especially fond of Gala and Honey Crisp. Can’t wait to see my copy of your cookbook
Fuji’s are my personal favorite, however, my kids prefer golden delicious apples.
All apples are my favorite. I am the kind of person who could eat apples as her only fruit option for the rest of her life and be okay. I grew up eating Fuji and Gala apples, but I’ve branched out since then, and I love Honeycrisp, Envy, and Granny Smith. Granny Smith is my favorite for pairing with homemade PB out of peanut flour….tart, crispy, and sweet all in one. 😀
Mmm…”Envy” is one I’ve never heard of! I’m going to have to check it out!
Envy is my fave! I believe it’s a cross between a Gala and a Braeburn.