Light summer fare

For dinner tonight I made a medley of salads using miscellaneous left over pantry and fridge items. I made a straight boxed Tabouli (mixed with the three slightly overripe plum tomatoes I had left over), a mildly spicy potato salad with a bunch of bagged white potatoes I had left over from making samosa filling last week, and finally, a mixed white bean salad with a bunch of pantry items:


I was worried about the potato salad, my initial inclination was to go the sweet southern potato salad direction, but available ingredients just wouldn't support it, so I ended up incorporating red pepper paste and chili powder... It was mildly spicy, not quite what I had envisioned when I set out, but JB said it was the "best potato salad (he'd) ever eaten" - which is a HUGE compliment coming from someone that eats quite a bit and wide variety of potato salads! Hmm. Ingredients - 8-10 small white potatoes, peeled, boiled and coarsely chopped, lots of low fat mayo, regular and Dijon mustards, various dashes of apple cider vinegar, white vinegar and balsamic vinegar until I got some combination I liked with the right "kick" - dash of lemon juice, lots of dill, probably 3/4 cup chopped celery and the same of onion (sweet vidalia like)... Let me think. Chili paste, chili powder, spicy Hungarian paprika... I think that's it other than salt & pepper. I think. Oh yeah! Probably about 3-4 tablespoons of dill relish.

After note: And, 2 hard boiled eggs, finely chopped. This, coming to me in a dream - realization last night that I left them out of my recap. How sad must my life be, that not only am I dreaming about potato salad, but dreaming about my blog entry about my recipe for potato salad. * Sigh * I am an admitted homebody.

My personal fave was the white bean salad. I'm going through some kind of white bean enamoration phase right now, though, so I'm a bit biased. I do think possibly substituting Kalamata olives for the straight black olives would have been better, but it was a "use what you have" kind of evening. To make the salad, mix up the following in a big bowl:

1 can large black olives - drained and coarsely chopped
1 can great northern beans - drained and rinsed
1 6oz jar quartered marinated artichoke hearts, drained and finely chopped
1/2 an orange bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped
2 scallions - green and whites, finely chopped
3 tbsp sun dried tomatoes (dry, the ones in the bag, not the jar, preferably) - chopped
1/2 cup or so of chopped cilantro
2 tsp. dill weed
1/2 tsp. garam masala
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp. lime juice
salt & pepper to taste

All the liquid and spice measurements are estimates, it was more "a dash of this, a bit of that" mixing it up, being careful not to go overboard with any one ingredient before mixing thoroughly and tasting for quality.

This was a good one and will definitely be on the agenda again.