Potato Salads

Food52 recently published a post on how to create a potato salad recipe, and just to be clear, most of their suggestions do not include mayo. This is exactly the right type of food article for me because one thing I’ve always hated in all aspects of my life is copying others.  I like feeling that what I’m creating is unique and all mine.  Of course this leads to some not very stellar results in my various endeavors, but I don’t always adhere to this in cooking because I don’t have the time or mental energy to be creative every week in this way.

But, this article makes it easy for me to feel like I’m being totally innovative (I know, it’s not really that innovative) while also being confident that my creation will be good enough to eat all week.  And it makes me consider eating a potato salad all week too, which I would have mostly dismissed as a bad idea given the traditional American potato salad.

In addition to the template, they provide a few sample recipes they made so if you’re not feeling creative, you can just use theirs.  I’m going to give the recipe for my first creation below because I thought it was fantastic and I will definitely be making it again.  It kept incredibly well and was a treat every day.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of bite-size potatoes

1 lb. asparagus

1 c. shelled sunflower seeds

1 portion of this harissa recipe (or, you know, buy it)

Juice from 1 lemon

1 handful of parsley

goat cheese (we also tried feta which was not nearly as good)

arugula

 

Instructions:

1.  Cook potatoes in salted water. (As the original article says, you can also roast them or fry them depending on your preference).
2. Briefly (I timed 2 minutes) boil asparagus – you can also of course roast or steam it.
3. Mix potatoes, asparagus and sunflower seeds in one bowl.
4. Add harissa and coat the vegetables  and seeds with it.
5. Pour the lemon juice over the mixture.
6. Store the salad.
7. When ready to eat (or put into a container to take to work/school), add a few dollops of goat cheese and a handful of arugula to the bowl.
8. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Steamed Vegetables and Rice Bowl

So I’m not a huge fan of steamed vegetables, but I found a recipe on bonappetit recently that makes me actually excited about eating them for lunch.  I’m even unimpressed with the picture shown in this recipe so I’m not sure why I ever gave it a chance, but I’m glad I did.  The vegetables are vegetables, but the sauce in this recipe elevates them way above their station.  I added tofu to the original recipe and then tried it all again but this time with grilled vegetables (of course way better even), and I’ve surprisingly loved all the variations.

 

Here’s my short hand version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 c. of rice (or more if you like)

Any steamable vegetables you like. I’ve used asparagus, peppers, broccoli, squash and zucchini.

One block of tofu

Sauce:

3T of lemon juice

1 T miso paste (the recipe calls for white, I used yellow)

1 garlic clove, chopped fine/grated

1 1/2t. fresh ginger chopped fine/grated

1 t. honey

1 t. sesame oil

1/4 c. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Steps:

1.  Make rice the way you like it.
2. Prepare tofu the way you like it.  I always squeeze the water out and then cook it.  I will cook it already cubed in a pan with some oil, bake it in the oven, or grill it.
3. Steam (or grill!) the vegetables.
4. Put together the sauce!  Combine all ingredients and stir/whisk quickly to emulsify.  Taste and adjust as necessary.