Recipes with walnuts

Apple Fennel Walnut Salad

Fennel brings a faint anise scent, more fragrant than sweet, and a celery-like snap that plays against thin slices of apple. Toasted walnuts add a slightly tannic crunch, and peppery arugula keeps the plate from leaning sweet. The honey-lemon dressing, just lemon juice, honey, olive oil, and salt, is deliberately plain so each ingredient stays recognizable. Sliced last and tossed straight into the dressing, the apple has no time to brown, and the salad goes to the table as soon as it is plated. In France and Italy this kind of salad turns up in autumn and winter, when apples and fennel are in season together, and it sits well beside roast chicken, where the fennel cuts through the richness.

Prep 8min Cook 15min 2 servings

Prep 15min 0 2 servings

Western Easy

Warm Melting Cheese (Whole Oven-Baked Camembert with Garlic and Honey)

Only the top rind is scored, so the whole wheel of Camembert holds its round shape in the oven while the inside turns molten, ready to scoop up with toasted baguette. Cuts that run down the sides let the cheese leak, and baking too long makes the fat separate. When the dish is nudged and the center wobbles, it is done; adding minutes just for color only risks an oily result. Honey and walnuts on top bring sweetness against the garlic, rosemary and salty cheese.

Baking Easy

Banana Walnut Bread

The coarsely chopped walnuts are toasted in a pan before they go in, so they come through as distinct nutty pieces in the moist banana crumb. Only half a teaspoon of cinnamon is used, not enough to cover the banana.

Prep 15min Cook 50min 4 servings

Desserts Easy

Gotgam Cream Cheese Roll (Dried Persimmon Rolls)

Dried persimmons are split along one side, opened flat, and rolled around cream cheese mixed with honey and lemon juice, plus coarsely chopped walnuts. After 20 minutes wrapped in the fridge, each slice shows a round of white cream and walnut inside the chewy fruit. If the persimmons have dried hard, five minutes in a damp paper towel keeps them from tearing as they are opened.

At least 30 min 2 servings

Drinks Easy

Korean Job's Tears Walnut Latte

Soaked Job's tears and walnuts are dry-toasted to drive off the raw grain smell, then simmered in milk and blended into a nutty latte. Soaking alone does not soften the grain enough to blend smoothly; it needs to simmer until a kernel gives when pressed.

Prep 10min Cook 18min 2 servings

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Gorgonzola Pear Walnut Gnocchi

Pear slices warmed in butter meet sharp, salty Gorgonzola melted into cream, with sweet and salty trading places from bite to bite. The pear gets just 1 minute over medium-low heat, enough to turn its edges slightly translucent while the center stays crisp. Boiling would split the cheese sauce, so the Gorgonzola melts slowly over low heat. Walnuts toasted in a dry pan add crunch against soft potato gnocchi, and a little lemon juice and black pepper cut the weight of the blue cheese. The gnocchi come out as soon as they float, before they turn soft, and start to finish the dish takes about 15 minutes.

Salads Medium

Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

Wrapped in foil and roasted, the beets keep their juice and come out sweet and tender, with much of their raw earthiness gone. Tangy goat cheese meets that sweetness, while peppery arugula and toasted walnuts round out a classic French-style starter. A dressing of balsamic, honey, and olive oil brings a sweet-tart edge that pulls the separate parts together. With beets of different sizes, a toothpick sliding easily into the center tells you more than the timer does. Peeled beets should cool fully before slicing for clean edges, and the goat cheese goes on just before serving so it keeps its texture.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 15min Cook 35min 2 servings

Baking Easy

Black Rice Walnut Madeleines

A 15-minute rest in the fridge before baking helps the batter rise into the madeleine's raised hump. Black rice flour gives the crumb a purple cast, and coarsely chopped walnuts turn up here and there.

Prep 20min Cook 12min 4 servings

Desserts Easy

Honey-Filled Rice Cakes (Steamed Glutinous Rice with Brown Sugar Syrup)

Bite into one and the brown sugar, melted during steaming, runs out as a sticky syrup with cinnamon and bits of walnut. Breaking up any brown sugar lumps by hand beforehand helps it melt evenly. The cakes are done when the surface looks translucent and glossy, and a thin brush of sesame oil before the soybean powder keeps them from sticking together.

Prep 25min Cook 10min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 20min 4 servings

Minari Pesto Chicken Gemelli

Minari, a Korean water dropwort, takes the place of basil, blended with walnuts and Parmesan into a pesto that tastes green, cool and faintly bitter. Lemon juice keeps the oil-rich sauce from feeling heavy, and browned chicken thigh makes it a full meal. Crown daisy (ssukgat) can stand in when minari is hard to find, though the aroma shifts.

Bomdong Strawberry Doenjang Salad

Bomdong, a flat, open-leaf cabbage harvested from winter into early spring, has sweet, crunchy leaves that pair surprisingly well with strawberries. The link is a doenjang dressing: Korean soybean paste loosened with olive oil, lemon juice, and honey, salty and nutty without being heavy. Because doenjang varies a lot in saltiness from brand to brand, the dressing goes on in portions, tasted as you go. The leaves are torn by hand rather than cut to keep their natural shape, then dried well, since leftover water thins the dressing. Strawberries sit on top of the greens instead of in the dressing, which would make them weep juice, and walnuts and sesame add a toasty note that bridges the fruit and the paste.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 10 servings

Prep 15min 0 2 servings

Baking Medium

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Made with vegetable oil rather than butter, this cake stays soft even straight out of the fridge. Finely grated carrot gives off moisture as it bakes and keeps the crumb moist, alongside cinnamon, nutmeg and coarsely chopped walnuts. A tangy cream cheese frosting goes on top.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Perilla Pesto Chicken Penne

Blended with walnuts, perilla leaves make a pesto whose scent recalls perilla oil: slightly bitter, quietly nutty and nothing like basil. Bite-size pieces of chicken breast stay lean and plain, letting the pesto carry the flavor, and the hollow penne fill with sauce.

Salads Medium

Charred Broccolini Doenjang Lentil Salad

Soft lentils soak right up a thick, savory dressing of doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste), Dijon mustard, and cider vinegar. Broccolini, halved lengthwise and charred at the edges, and coarsely chopped walnuts give the bowl its crunch. It holds well cold or at room temperature, so it is easy to prepare ahead.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 18min Cook 20min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Rugelach (Jewish Cream Cheese Crescent Pastry)

No yeast and no butter folds: this dough is just flour with cream cheese and butter worked in, then chilled until firm enough to roll. Apricot jam, finely chopped walnuts and cinnamon sugar are spread over each round, which is cut into 12 wedges and rolled into crescents, 24 in total. If the dough cracks at the edges while rolling, give it a minute to soften rather than forcing it.

Prep 115min Cook 22min 4 servings

Prep 35min Cook 20min 2 servings

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Butter

Steamed sweet potato bound with potato starch and a little flour makes softer, sweeter, orange-tinted gnocchi than the potato kind. The steamed sweet potato sits uncovered for a moment to let the steam escape, keeping extra moisture out of the dough. Kneading stops the moment the dough comes together, or the boiled pieces turn dense and chewy. Part of the starch is held back and added only if the dough sticks to your hands, as sweet potatoes vary in moisture. Butter browned with sage until it smells of hazelnut, plus chopped walnuts for crunch, finishes the plate.

Fruit Yogurt Salad

Apple, banana, strawberries and blueberries cut into bite-size pieces get folded into plain yogurt sweetened with honey, whose soft tang sits over the fruit's sweetness. Lemon juice slows browning on the cut apple and freshens the finish, while walnuts toasted briefly in a dry pan bring crunch to an otherwise soft bowl.

Prep 15min Cook 26min 4 servings

Prep 12min 0 2 servings

Baking Easy

Rice Flour Walnut Biscuit Bars

Rice flour and almond flour make up the dough, and the bars break apart lightly in the mouth, with bits of chopped walnut throughout. For more crunch, turn the oven off once they are baked and leave them inside with the door ajar for another 5 minutes. Cutting before they have cooled completely breaks the bars.

Dried Persimmon Ricotta Nut Salad

Dried persimmon cut into rounds shows a chewy, almost jammy center that contrasts with soft spoonfuls of ricotta. Bitter chicory and peppery arugula balance its concentrated sweetness, and walnuts and pine nuts toasted in a dry pan add a warm, nutty smell. When the persimmon is especially sweet, a little more balsamic vinegar brings the plate back into balance.