This light and delicious summer recipe uses no eggs or dairy products but instead uses vegetarian sour cream. If you don't want quite so rich a taste, try skipping the sour cream entirely and just tossing the potato salad with oil and vinegar. Roasted red and red chile peppers, plus either black olives or poppy seeds replace the traditional eggs in this recipe, making it a really special summer treat either way.
Season the salad "southern-style," with mustard, paprika, and dill, or opt for a more "Mediterranean" seasoning combination with herbes de Provence and thyme. Then, as noted above, either just toss all with oil and vinegar and lemon juice or mix in some delicious vegetarian sour cream.
Using a pressure cooker, the potatoes cook in around ten minutes. While the potatoes are cooking you can roast the peppers, and get the whole thing together in under twenty minutes.
This makes a great picnic or buffet dish, enough to serve four or five.
The Basic Salad: Ingredients
- 1-and-1/4 lbs (or slightly more) small new red potatoes ("Petit Red" work well; one variety of these actually had ruby-colored whorls inside; these were delicious but I have not found these but once)
- 1/2 or 1 small red chili pepper
- 1/4 or 1/2 sweet red bell pepper
- splash of oil (grapeseed oil works well)
- splash of vinegar
- 4 scallions, ends trimmed, minced finely
- 2 small hearts of celery, ends trimmed, minced finely
The Seasoning: Option One: "Mediterranean:" Ingredients
- 1-and-1/2 tbsp dried herbes de Provence
- 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
- 1 or 2 tsps fresh thyme, minced
- optionally, 1/2 tsp prepared mustard
- pinch paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
Seasoning Option Two: "Southern-style," with Dill: Ingredients
- 2 tbsps fresh cilantro, minced
- 1/2 tbsp dried herbes de Provence
- 2 tsps fresh dill, minced
- 2 tsps ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp prepared mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
The Dressing: Option One: Rich Southern-style with Vegetarian "Sour Cream:" Ingredients
- juice of one lemon
- 1 tbsp wine vinegar
- 1 or 1-and-1/2 tbsps grapeseed or olive oil
- 2 or 3 tbsps vegetarian sour cream (Tofutti brand works well)
Dressing Option Two: Vinaigrette: Ingredients
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp wine vinegar
- 2 or slightly more tbsps oil (grapeseed or olive)
Steps
- Wash and scrub the potatoes, halve them, and cook them till tender (ideally in a pressure cooker, where they will cook in around ten minutes covered to a quarter of their height with a bit of water, oil, and vinegar).
- Once the potatoes are cooked, cut the halves in half (that is, quarter them).
- Meanwhile wash and core the peppers, and cut them into strips. Then brush the strips lightly with oil, then vinegar, and place in a 400 degree oven, Toast for about 7 minutes on each side, then broil lightly 2 or 3 more minutes.
- Mince the roasted peppers.
- Combine the potato quarters, minced peppers, minced scallions, minced celery, and your choice of seasonings, and toss.
- Squeeze on the juice of a lemon and add the dressing ingredients (oil and vinegar, and if you are using it the vegetarian sour cream), and toss again.
The Grand Finale Topping
For this you'll need:
- your choice: 1/3 cup pitted ripe black olives, sliced into thirds, or 2 to 3 tbsps poppy seeds
- optionally, two or three strips vegetarian bacon, microwaved on high 2 minutes, dried lightly between paper towels, and crumbled
Now sprinkle the salad with your choice of sliced olives or poppy seeds, plus the crumbled vegetarian "bacon," if you are using this, and toss it once more. Serve it at once, or chill it first. (It's even more delicious after it's chilled a few hours.)
