Showing posts with label potato salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potato salad. Show all posts

Monday, April 14, 2014

Not Quite Normal Potato Salad

Ingredients: 

2-3 medium sized boiled Yukon gold potatoes (skin on) cut into one inch cubes
2 cups of sweet grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup thinly sliced sweet onion (use a lot less if it's not a sweet onion) 
1 handful (about a cup) of arugula (a.k.a. rocket) leaves, chopped 
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon mustard 
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 
1 oz. feta cheese or other sharp cheese (optional). If you don't use feta, add a little extra salt.

If the potatoes are still warm, go ahead and toss in the olive oil and garlic salt on them first, and then let them cool completely before adding the other ingredients. Now because you are using tomatoes, this isn't really a potato salad that you mix up ahead of time, but you can do all the chopping ahead and then mix it all together at the last minute. The arugula adds a peppery-ness to it, so you don't need to add pepper. If you do I would go with white pepper, not black. If you aren't doing dairy, a good substitute to add richness is a crumbled hard boiled egg yolk (no white, that's not a great texture here.) 

I just ate this for lunch and it didn't need bread or anything. But it would go great with fried chicken too!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Salmon Salad Recipe, Because the Sweet Potato Pancakes Sucked

*Sigh* Here's the deal. If you are giving up grains, don't try to make fake versions of things like pancakes, they're baaaaad. So, so bad. For example, I tried to make these sweet potato pancakes: a cup of mashed sweet potato, four eggs, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of honey, and butter for frying. But seriously, don't make them, because they suck. They taste like a cross between warm pumpkin pie and cinnamon scrambled eggs. Bleh.

Anyway, here's a recipe for salmon instead. 

First of all, get the really good wild salmon fillets, pour enough olive oil in a pan to cover the bottom, and over medium heat, toss in one garlic clove, sliced. Immediately place the salmon portions in the pan, skin side down. Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper, thyme, and tarragon. Cover and cook for a few minutes, JUST until the color of the salmon turns light pink instead of dark pink. Squeeze a half of a lemon over the top, and when you serve it, just peel the skin off of the bottom first (I eat it, but you can give it to the dog) and spoon some of the oil and juices from the pan over the top.

The Salad Part

I like to keep boiled and salted potatoes ready to go in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, ready to turn into fried breakfast potatoes, or slice into salads like this one.

A small bag of good greens, baby kale, arugula, spring mix...whatever
3 small boiled Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced
1 avocado, sliced or cubed
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
1 big pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Juice of one lemon
2 oz. crumbled feta or other good cheese

Toss all of the the ingredients- and for Pete's sake, don't be a baby, use your hands, they work the best. You can always wash them, and both the olive oil and lemon juice are good for your skin anyway. Serve the salmon on top of the salad. It's just delicious.