Or Mediterranean Potato Salad meets Faux Potato Salad and lived happily ever after.
Don’s Yellow Mustard Potato Salad is as basic as possible. It consists of boiled potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, and mustard; if you want salt and pepper then you add it at the table.
The potato salad my Mom made also had pickle relish, celery, and onion – and maybe a few other ingredients that I don’t remember. When I came across Annemarie’s recipe for Mediterranean Potato Salad it triggered the memory of Mom’s potato salad. This salad has more ingredients than I remember, we never had Kalamata olives, but still it was compelling.
I made half of the family size recipe and it lasted me for 4-5 days. Part of the way through Don made his potato salad and I could not offend the ‘Chef’ of our home. Can you say ‘enough with the potatoes already’? Well, not out loud.
Still loving the tangy, red oniony Mediterranean dressing and in carb overload I had the idea to use cauliflower instead of potatoes for a lighter version. So many recipes on the internet for low-carb and/or paleo diets are creating (totally fascinating) ‘faux potato’ recipes with cauliflower so I jumped right in. These salad ingredients are quite different from the original salad but the tangy dressing is the same.
Skillet Grilled Mushrooms and Zucchini
Mediterranean Potato Salad Dressing
Follow the link for the dressing and combine the ingredients as per the original directions.
- Mediterranean Faux Potato Salad
- 1 pound cauliflower florets (mine were frozen)
- 1 small zucchini, in small bite size wedges*
- 4 medium or 2 large fresh mushrooms, chopped
- ½ cup Kalamata olives, chopped
- ½ small organic carrot, very thinly sliced
- 2-3 tablespoons diced red onion
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- Cook the cauliflower until it is tender enough to cut with a fork but not a minute longer.
- While you are minding the cauliflower prepare the zucchini and mushroom.
- Warm a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet and add the chopped zucchini and mushroom with a sprinkle of sea salt.
- Sauté lightly until the mushrooms give off some of their flavorful essence and the zucchini takes on the tiniest bit of grilled appearance. Again, tender but not soft, ‘al dente’ like pasta.
- Add the carrot, red onion, and tomatoes to a mixing bowl.
- Add the other veggies when they are ready.
- Pour on the dressing, mix well, cover, and set in the refrigerator for several hours.
- The salad improves in flavor for at least three days after which time I cannot tell you; by then it was all gone.
A Temporary Distraction in the Neighbor’s Yard
Completed and Garnished Salad
It was a side dish for two meals. With the addition of a generous handful of chopped walnuts it was a full meal on another day. Lots of flavor, nourishment, and the happy feeling of being well-fed.
Gretchen @gfedge
This post is linked to:
Wellness Weekend July 26-30, 2012
at Ricki Heller’s Blog – Diet, Dessert, and Dogs.
