I AM BACK!!!! After a 2 month hiatus between holidays, family visits, my daughter's birthday and other assorted life situations I am back with another healthy recipe for you today. There was a lot going on and for my own mental health I needed to take a step back for a few weeks. I hope you'll forgive me and continue cooking and sharing my recipes.
During all the chaos of life was my daughter's 8th birthday. She is a fan of Starbucks and other smaller local coffee shops... so, of course, she asked if we could have a Starbucks themed birthday party this year. We had a lot of fun! I made "protein boxes" of grilled cheese & grapes. We had bottled frappacino, chocolate milk, green tea and bottled water to drink. My best friend made AMAZING cake pops. We played pin the straw in the frappacino and ring toss trying to ring the bottled frappacino (and I used inflatable drink holders so the bottles didn't topple and break). I think the kids all enjoyed themselves.
Now that we have hit February we are getting back on a normal track and a normal schedule. I don't think we have a single trip or out of town visitor scheduled for a while so this is a good time to start fresh.
One of the things people that know me really well can tell you is I am not a big fan of mayo. I use it in some recipes or on certain things that don't taste quite right without it but 95% of the time I don't do mayo. However, I love potato salads... just not ones made with that ingredient. German Potato Salad is something I really like since it is oil and vinegar dressed. Another potato salad I really enjoy is this Indian inspired salad. The creamy dressing on it is made with nonfat Greek yogurt and the flavors are not your typical American BBQ choice. It makes for a nice change of pace and a wonderful side dish for my pork chop.
The ingredients are mostly items you probably already have at home except maybe the Tumeric. That is what gives it this bright yellow color. Tumeric has a ton of health benefits and if you have never considered adding a little bit of Tumeric to your diet here and there you should check out this list of health benefits or read up on this spice.
I also used fresh ginger. You could use powdered ginger but I highly recommend using the real deal. I will buy a knob of ginger, cut it into the size pieces I assume I'll need later and freeze it in a freezer bag for about 6 months. It won't go bad in the freezer and you'll always have plenty of the good stuff for your next stir fry or other recipes. Another quick tip, always peel your ginger with a spoon. With a knife you will lose too much ginger and it is really too small and oddly shaped to use a peeler. Trust me on this one. Ginger is also super good for you.
I promise that's the last graphic about the reason I keep certain ingredients on hand but if you want to claim this potato salad as a super food I wouldn't stop you. *wink*
The ingredients are pretty simple.
3 potatoes
3 cups of kale (pre-cut and washed)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp tumeric
1/8 tsp cayanne
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried cilantro leaves
Healthy dash of salt & pepper
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp honey
1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
2 scallions, chopped
** in the photo I forgot to include garlic, scallions & honey
First, you will need to wash the potatoes and dice them into bite sized pieces. Then you want to cook the potatoes & steam your kale. You have a couple options for this.
Boiling your potatoes is a tried and true method. Add potatoes to water in pot. Boil for about 10 minutes or until soft. Steaming the kale can also be done by using a steamer basket over boiling water until the kale is tender.
However, I really didn't want to heat up my house just to cook a few potatoes and kale. My method was to dice the potatoes and pull out my Ninja Foodi (which actually lives on my counter and is never put away).
I poured about 2 cups of water in the bottom and added the potatoes to the basket. Then I placed a steamer basket over that with the kale. I set the pressure cooker lid on and pressure cooked everything for 10 minutes.
As a side note, I love using the pressure cooker if for no other reason to pull out my Minion. His eyes redirect the steam and he cracks me up. I'm always up for a bit of humor when I'm in the kitchen.
While my potatoes and kale were steaming away in the pressure cooker I got to work on the dressing for this salad.
Heat a small nonstick pan and add 2 tbsp olive oil.
Add the garlic & ginger to the pan and cook just until fragrant. Only about 30 seconds. Then pour the mixture into a blender.
Add all the remaining ingredients to the blender except for the green onions. Blend until fully smooth. Yum!
Once the vegetables are finished cooking you will want to remove the kale and squeeze out any liquid. Believe me, having a watery potato salad because the greens are coved in water is not good for anybody. I just use a clean dish towel to remove any excess liquid.
Now for the fun stuff! Add your potatoes, kale, scallions and about 2/3 of the dressing to a bowl. If you have a pepper grinder a good healthy dose of fresh cracked pepper also brings this up a notch.
This really tastes best while it is still warm but can absolutely be eaten cold. Let me know if you try it out and if you enjoy it as much as I do.
Please also be sure to share with your friends and invite others to follow me for more recipes. To the few subscribers I do have THANK YOU SO MUCH for following me and helping me stay more accountable.