all tossed up red potato and artichoke salad
I volunteered to plan and cook for a 200 guest wedding reception 3,000 miles away from my home! I arrived 5 days early to hunt down ingredients throughout a 60-mile radius! What a challenge! I planned to make a mustard vinaigrette for a red potato salad. However, at the end of one exhausting day, I accidentally whisked into the vinaigrette lemon and lime juice for a different recipe. My vinaigrette already had lots of vinegar in it! And so, I quickly grabbed a jar of artichoke marinate I had saved after using all of the artichokes in a tapenade. I doctored up the marinade and walaaa a lovely red potato salad evolved! I love dishes that are vibrant in color, so I added the green beans and tomatoes. My 30 pounds of red potatoes quickly vanished as guests raved about the salad. Many commented on how fresh the salad tasted. Lessons learned: #1 Don't ever TOSS marinades until all the cooking is over. #2 Don't cook when you are exhausted! #3. When a mistake is made just TOSS together whatever great ingredients you have at hand and your new dish just might be better than the dish you had planned. When I arrived back home, I pondered how well received the artichoke scented red potato, tomato, green bean salad was and decided to TOSS it together, in a smaller portion! I intentionally added artichoke marinade and also tossed in artichoke hearts. How rewarding to hear my husband say, "This is the best potato salad I've ever had. It is so fresh. So much better than that creamy stuff!".
Ingredients For all tossed up red potato and artichoke salad
-
1 Tbspsalt for boiling water
-
3 lbunpeeled whole baby red potatoes, 2-inches or under
-
2 cpetite green beans, cut in half, snip ends, blanched 3 minutes
-
1 cchopped celery
-
2 ccherry tomatoes
-
2 cmarinated artichoke hearts (in jar), if hearts don’t come quartered, cut in quarters
-
1 cmarinate juice from jar of marinated artichokes
-
1/4 cextra virgin olive oil
-
1 Tbsplemon zest from one lemon
-
1 Tbspfresh lemon juice from one lemon
-
1/2 cthinly sliced green onions
-
1 tspsugar
-
1/2 tspsalt, additional salt to taste
-
1/4 cpacked fresh basil, chopped
-
1/4 cchopped fresh parsley
-
1/2 creal bacon bits
-
1/2 tspground black pepper
How To Make all tossed up red potato and artichoke salad
-
1Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil, and add salt. Add red potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes, cool, and cut in quarters; place in a large salad bowl. Add to the potatoes blanched green beans, celery, cherry tomatoes, and artichoke hearts; set aside.
-
2In a small bowl, whisk marinate juice, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, green onions, sugar, and salt. Pour over potatoes, add basil, parsley, and bacon bits, LIGHLY TOSS. Cover and chill potato salad in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. To serve, sprinkle with pepper and salt to taste. Yields: 12 cups.
- Last Step: Don't forget to share! Make all your friends drool by posting a picture of your finished recipe on your favorite social network. And don't forget to tag Just A Pinch and include #justapinchrecipes so we can see it too!