I can't eat eggs. I guess that's good from a karma perspective- no killing of baby male chicks, less cholesterol in the diet, better for the planet, etc. Still, I do shed a small tear every time (and it's not often) that I make an over-easy egg for one of my kids. I sure miss dipping toast into the yolk. When my middle son was an infant, I was pressured into getting a flu shot and after that, I became sensitive to eggs. Major stomach pains if I eat a whole egg and prolonged discomfort over a few days if I eat eggs by mistake in baked goods.
Anyway, thanks to the wonders of food science, vegan mayonnaise exists and it's excellent. My favorite is the Follow Your Heart Vegenaise. When used in a recipe, I really can't tell the difference between this vegan mayo and regular mayo. It's creamy and delicious.
Last week, two of my friends were heading out of town on vacation and therefore, I became the happy recipient of two vegetable allocations from two different farm shares. Both contained potatoes, so of course I had to make my favorite potato salad. I learned that Yukon gold potatoes aren't the greatest choice for potato salad. Texturally, they just aren't as good and they are slightly sweet and also very gold in color (as the name would suggest). However, I didn't have enough red-skinned potatoes, so alas, I had to make the salad with both red-skinned potatoes and the Yukon golds. The salad was not super attractive, but still super delicious.
This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's potato salad recipe. I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that every single savory recipe she publishes has way too much salt. So, I've adjusted the level of seasoning, plus made a couple of ingredient swaps and omissions. The key is cooking the potatoes as she recommends so that they're just the right texture- not too hard and not mushy.
Cook 3 lbs of potatoes in water with 2 tablespoons of salt. It helps to have potatoes that are similar in size so that the overall texture of the potatoes is uniform. Heat up the water with the cleaned potatoes. When the water starts to boil, cook the potatoes for about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander, cover with a dish towel and let them steam for another 20 minutes.
Dice 1/2 cup of celery and 1/2 cup of shallots.
In a measuring cup, mix together:
- 1 cup of Vegenaise
- 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
- 1.5 tablespoons of whole grain mustard
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of pepper
When the potatoes are cool enough, cut them into about 1/2 inch pieces and add to a large mixing bowl. Add in the diced celery and shallots and coat with the dressing.
If you're going to be eating this salad little by little, keep some fresh basil handy and chop some up and mix it in right before eating. If you prefer dill, you can add chopped dill instead (about 1/2 cup if you'd rather just add it to the entire salad). This salad tastes better the longer it sits in the fridge. For some reason, I can only eat potato salad in the summertime, so I might only make this one more time before fall settles in. Maybe one last time if we're doing a Labor Day BBQ.
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