Sunday, June 14, 2009

World's Best Potato Salad



I've long thought I've always made pretty good potato salad (which I used to make vegan with Nayonaise), but this time I experimented a bit, to delicious results. And apologies, I didn't really measure anything except for the spices.

Ingredients:

Around 5-6lbs of potatoes (I had a little less than a 10lb bag and used a bit more than half of it)
2 very small or about half a large yellow onion, chopped small
1 large dill pickle (or two small ones), chopped small
Around 3C of mayo (would probably be fine with Light Mayo, but I use full flavor)
Around 1/4C spicy brown mustard (dijon would be fine as well)
Large splash of pickle brine from the pickle jar (probably around 1/4C)
Around 1T of brown mustard seed
1/4t smoked paprika
1/4t curry powder
1/4t cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes with a bit of salt until tender (takes about 30-40 minutes). Drain and let cool (I rinsed it under cold water for 5 or so minutes and then put them in the fridge while I was making the dressing).

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl until completely mixed. If it's too runny, add a bit more mayo. Chop up potatoes with skins still on and put them back in the pot you cooked them in. Pour the dressing over the potatoes and mix. Chill until cold. Enjoy!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Red Cabbage Coleslaw



I had a bunch of red cabbage left over from the vegan corned beef and cabbage that I made (highly recommended), and I've never really been a fan of cabbage unless it was accompanying a Taco Del Mar Fish Burrito (guilty pleasure), so I wasn't quite sure what to do with half a red cabbage, already shredded, and about to go bad in my already packed full fridge. My boyfriend is German, and loves coleslaw (something I've only grown to like, if it's good and not too sweet, as an adult, but hated for most of my life), so I decided to surprise him and whip up some coleslaw with all the leftover cabbage and carrots we had. I looked at a lot of recipes online, and none of them looked exactly like what I was looking for, so I kind of just took parts of what I liked and hoped it would all work together. And it did. None of this is exact, because I'm really bad about measuring, and I always think I can eyeball it (which I always do when cooking except for when making sweets), so basically, if you follow these amounts and it sucks, I'm sorry.

1/2 head red cabbage (just what I had left)
1 shredded carrot
2 big heaping spoonfuls of mayo (maybe around 1/4-1/3 cup?)
sprinkle of olive oil (maybe about 1T)
2 T pickle juice
1 T honey mustard
salt
pepper
lowrey's seasoning salt

The honey mustard added just enough sweetness (I refuse to ever, ever put straight sugar into a savory dish), and the pickle juice provided just enough tartness. Plus, it's very pretty! Since there's so little mayo in this, and it's already on the savory side, it'd be easy to replace this with vegan mayo, and use less pickle juice and a touch more honey mustard to balance out the mustard-like quality of the Vegan-aise. I'm serving it tonight as a side to Quorn chik-patties on cibatta rolls with provolone, lettuce, tomato, and avacado.