Potato Salads - Three Easy, Healthful Recipes

Potato salads are not just for picnics! They're good year-round, and the variations are endless. Try adding chunks of red-skinned potatoes to just about any tossed salad recipe, or make your own versions of my recipes by adding any other ingredients you like.

I never peel potatoes for salads. The skins of the red ones are pretty in a salad and if you throw them away, you waste their fiber. Just scrub the potatoes with a plastic scouring pad.

Favorite Potato Salad

6 red potatoes

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup non-fat yoghurt

1/4 cup dijon mustard

2 teaspoon celery seed

1/4 cup snipped fresh dill

Freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup no-fat mayonnaise

Boil the potatoes until just tender, about 20 minutes. Cool and dice. Combine with the remaining ingredients except the mayonnaise and chill at least 30 minutes. Mix in mayonnaise just before serving.

4-6 servings

Green Bean-Potato Salad

1 pound green beans

1 pound red potatoes, preferably tiny baby potatoes

1 red onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons wine vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

Freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 cup no-fat yogurt or mayonnaise

Cut the green beans in 1" pieces and steam until they are crisp-tender. Cut the potatoes into ½" cubes (leave baby potatoes whole) and cook them until they are just tender, about 10-15 minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water to stop the cooking; chill. When ready to serve, toss the potatoes with the remaining ingredients.

4-6 servings

New Potato Salad

For the dressing:

1/2 cup yogurt

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons balsamic or rice vinegar

2 teaspoons fennel seeds

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the salad:

1 pound tiny red new potatoes

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 bunch green onions, sliced (white part)

1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley

Combine the dressing ingredients.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water to cover for about 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking. If they are larger than bite-size, cut them in halves or quarters. Combine the potatoes with the remaining salad ingredients, stir in the dressing and serve, or chill for later.

4-6 servings

Salad Toppings - Top 10 Ways to Make Your Salads More Tasty and Filling!

OK, so summer is approaching very quickly and most of us are turning our attention to getting in shape in time for bathing suit season.  At this time of year, salads become our friends. We turn to them for their delicious lightness, for a quick bite and for their tried and true body shaping qualities.

But uninteresting salads can make for a very dull meal and a very unhappy eater.  And if you don't top a salad the right way, you are going to very hungry, very quickly.

So here my top ten salad toppings to turn your salads from boring to delightful! Some of these tips are useful for eating salads at restaurants and others are for homemade ones.  If you decide to create homemade salads and bring them with you to work, you may want to try those new salad plastic containers that hold the salad in one part and the dressing in another.  That way your salad and salad toppings will be crispy when you decide to eat them.

1. Double the lean protein (turkey, chicken, eggs, fish) - add chicken and turkey or salmon and eggs.  Do this especially if you often feel hungry after your salads.  A little more protein may help you go the extra mile to avoid the vending machine in the afternoon.

2. Add beans, like black, kidney, cannelloni, or garbanzo.  Beans have lots of great complex carbs, fiber and protein.  They also help to fill you up and keep you that way.

3. Create your own dressings as salad toppings. My favorite is a combination of orange juice, balsamic vinegar, and Grey Poupon mustard.  You can add some olive oil to make it even richer.  I especially like this dressing with spinach leaves.

4. Add some fruit.  Fruit can be great salad toppings.  It can turn a boring salad into a sweet sensation.  My favorites are: orange slices (fresh or canned), strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple slices (fresh or canned). If you are using canned, sugar-free fruit, use the juice to mix into the salad dressing.

5. Add some hummus, Baba-Ganoush or mashed white beans to your salad or salad dressing.  This may sound odd, but it is actually quite delightful. 

6. Make your own glazed nuts as salad toppings.  Dry roast some walnuts or pecans and then add some honey or maple syrup to the pan to coat the nuts.  Take them out of the pan and separate them before they cool, so they don't clump.  The nuts become a flavorful addition to a boring salad.  This is great if you have a sweet tooth that you are trying to control.

7. Add cooked diced sweet potatoes or regular potatoes. Dice some potatoes into squares.  Coat them in some olive oil and fresh rosemary and roast them until they are soft. Then toss them over mesclun greens.  I especially like this salad with roasted asparagus spears and sliced eggs.

8. Add apples and pears.  Cube up some apples and/or pears and sprinkle these on top of your salad.  I especially like to mix apples and pears with walnuts and have them over spinach.

9. Skip the leaves.  Chop up tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocadoes.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.  Enjoy.

10. Change up your vinegars and oils.  Spend some time in the oil and vinegar aisle at your local health food store.  A new vinegar or oil can really change up your dressings and make for tasty salad toppings.  Try mixing apple cider vinegar with apple juice and spicy mustard.  Or rice wine vinegar with mirin wine (in the oriental section) and orange juice.  Another suggestion: toasted sesame oil and rice wine vinegar with orange slices over cabbage greens.    

Summer Salads

Green vegetables are the food most missing in modern diets. Nutritionally, greens
are very high in calcium (120 -190 mg per cup!) They're also high in magnesium,
iron, potassium, phosphorous, zinc, and they are a power house for Vitamin A, C, E
and K. Believe it or not, they are also crammed high with fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll
and many other micro-nutrients and phyto-chemicals - you just can't get any better
than this. Take a look at the following two recipes to help move you into a
sensational summer!

Sensational Summer Salad

For a summer snack that will cleanse the kidneys and help the body to unload toxic
wastes from the blood, use the following high powered recipe.

1/2 cup of watercress

1/2 cup of dandelion greens

1/2 cup of arugula

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp grated ginger

pinch of Sea Salt

Mix washed greens together.

Stir lemon juice and ginger.

Pour over greens.

Season with salt.

Tomato Basil & Feta Salad

This is a simple salad that requires no salad dressing.

2 cups tomatoes, diced

1/4 cup red onions, finely chopped

2.25 ounces sliced black olives

3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Add all ingredients in a medium serving bowl and toss!

Enjoy!

To your energy and success, Heather