My sister-in-law hosted an end-of-summer family gathering today to mark the end of summer, and EVERYONE came. Except for one sibling, all the brothers and sisters, their spouses, and all the young children were in attendance. We got to hear about Elizabeth’s trip to the junior Olympics (world record in her age class in weightlifting and a pentathalon under her belt!) and Mark’s family’s car trip to the East Coast with four rambunctious girls. There was bean bag toss and ladder golf and lots of sitting around on the wide porch getting caught up.
I made two salads, trying to use as much garden produce as possible. My standard is an Asian pasta salad to which I can add lots of vegetables. To the fettucine I added green beans, radishes, sweet red peppers, carrots, cucumber and kale, along with the dressing of rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger powder and a bit of sugar, salt and pepper.
But I really wanted to make a big potato salad with green beans, so for a recipe I went to epicurious.com. The recipe I found sounded strange– dijon vinaigrette AND blue cheese? The herbs are sage and rosemary? For a summer salad? But everyone was raving about it in the review section, so I just went ahead and committed. Well, it was extremely good. I will definitely make it again. And though it’s a pain to roast the potatoes, that is definitely important. As a late summer salad, after the potatoes are dug, it is a total winner.
Here, with hardly any changes of any kind, is the recipe:
Mustard Vinaigrette
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup chopped shallots
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
Mix mustard and vinegar in bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Mix in shallots and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover, chill. Bring to room temperature, mix before using.)
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mustard-Vinaigrette-1786#ixzz25MYm0FAF
For potato salad:
2 pounds baby red-skinned potatoes, chopped in 2-inch dice
8 tablespoons Mustard Vinaigrette
2/3 cup crumbled Roquefort cheese
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix potatoes and 3 tablespoons vinaigrette and salt and pepper in large baking dish. Roast 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. and continue roasting until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and cool slightly. Mix in 3 tablespoons vinaigrette and 1/3 cup Roquefort cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Cook green beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3-5 minutes. Drain. Rinse under cold water to cool; drain well. Transfer to medium bowl. Mix in 3 tablespoons cheese, 2 tablespoons vinaigrette and walnuts. Season with salt and pepper.
Arrange beans on platter. Mound potatoes in center of platter atop beans. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Make sure to cool the potatoes at least 10 minutes so the cheese doesn’t melt and the sauce doesn’t separate. I also used less cheese, though more cheese would be good!
Your salads sound really good. I’m such a stick-in-the-mud about making the same potato salad. Glad to see you broke free and tried something new. I should do likewise.
Thanks, Delaine! I do adore my mother’s potato salad with the celery seed, hard-boiled eggs and lots of mayonnaise, but this was better for the crowd we had that day and used some garden veggies!