Warm Potato Salad with Leek and Bacon

I developed this recipe a few years ago when trying to think of a mayo alternative for potato salad. I have a few friends who do not like mayo based foods, and my paranoid #foodsafety makes me weary of white sauces in the summer. I wanted something that would taste delicious warm or room temperature without fear of illness. I had been playing around with mustard, apple cider vinegar and maple syrup for other salads and roasted vegetables, and thought the combination with bacon and leeks would make for a flavourful side. The result is zingy, savoury and hearty - the perfect sidekick to any BBQ this summer.

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Warm Potato Salad with Leek and Bacon

30 mins total

Ingredients:

Dressing:

2 tbsp grainy mustard

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp maple syrup

¼ tsp of kosher salt

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salad:

2 bags of baby potatoes (3 lbs total)

2 leeks, white parts sliced (yields roughly 2 ½ cups sliced)

8-12 strips of bacon, preferably from a market or local butcher

¼ cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

The prep (you can do these three steps at the same time - mostly inactive cooking):

1. Rinse the potatoes and place in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and boil until potatoes are fork tender (about 15 minutes). Once cooked through, drain and set aside.

2. Bake the bacon: this is my favourite way to cook bacon. Less mess and a more even cook. Preheat oven to 350F and place bacon onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake until the bacon is cooked and crisp - about 20 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and place on paper towels. The bacon will crisp up more as it cools. Once cooled, chop into bite sized pieces and set aside.

3. In a large bowl whisk together the grainy mustard, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and kosher salt. Slowly pour in the oil while whisking until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Take ¼ cup of the vinaigrette out and set aside in a small bowl or mason jar.

The assembly:

1. In a medium sized frying pan, add any bacon fat that pooled onto your cookie sheet while it baked. If there isn’t much, add about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Heat to medium. Add in your sliced leeks and cook gently until translucent and tender, about 10 minutes.

2. Add your leeks into the large bowl with 3/4 of your vinaigrette and allow them to soak while you cut your potatoes small bite sized pieces (½ inch). Add to the leek/vinaigrette mixture, along with your chopped bacon. Toss.

3. Taste - does it need salt? If it doesn’t taste yummy and addictive yet, you likely need to season it more. Remember that potatoes are inherently bland and need a lot of help. I usually end up adding about ½ tsp more kosher salt during the final taste and season.

4. Serve warm or chill until ready to serve.

5. If chilling before serving, use your reserved vinaigrette right before serving - the potatoes will likely have soaked up most of the sauce. Top with chopped fresh parsley.

Cilantro-Lime Yogurt Dressing

Summer means it’s time to start switching out soups for salads and bring the freshness back to my desk lunches. For me, the perfect lunch salad has the following components:

• Minimum 1 roasted vegetable

• Minimum 1 raw vegetable

• A green vegetable base

• A nutty grain

• A protein

• A zingy dressing

This dressing is my go-to lunch dressing - extra zingy and a limited amount of oil. If you are cilantro adverse you could swap in parsley or basil, and switch the lime for lemon.

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Cilantro-Line Yogurt Dressing

5 mins

Ingredients:

1/3 cup fresh cilantro, including stems

1/3 cup 0% plain Greek yogurt (or 2%)

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 limes juiced (roughly 1/4 cup lime juice)

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Method:

1. Put all ingredients into a food processor* and whiz until emulsified and smooth.

2. Chill until ready to serve!

*If you do not have a food processor, you could use a blender. Depending on the size of your blender you may need to double the recipe for the blades to pick up the ingredients.

For the salad above, here is what I prepared:

• Roasted brussels sprouts (20 mins at 400F, tossed with some olive oil, salt and pepper and red pepper flakes)

• Halfed cherry tomatoes

• Spinach

• Wheat berries (from Flourist - 4 cups water, 1 cup wheat berries, boiled for 45 mins)

• 6 minute egg (bring water to a boil, turn down to a simmer, place in eggs and cook for 6 mins. Place into a ice water bath).

• Cilantro-Lime Yogurt Dressing

Go-To Winter Side Salad

6 simple ingredients

One of the first bloggers I followed on Instagram was Dulanotes - I loved her simple approach to truly yummy food. Back in 2016, she posted this recipe for Pork Scalloppine with Fennel Salsa Verde. Fennel is one of my favourite vegetables - tastes amazing raw with lemon juice and some salt n pepper, but also cooks into a buttery texture similar to cooked cabbage when braised.

I’ve taken Dulanote’s fennel salsa verde recipe and adjusted it over the years to make what I call the best winter side salad around. Winter meals tend to be heavier, especially when entertaining - braised meats, meat wrapped in pastry, etc. The brightness, acidity and crunch of this salad will balance the richest of tourtieres, beef wellingtons, pork ragu pastas and so on. A family favourite, always requested when I go home for the holidays, it also holds up well in the fridge for leftovers thanks to the kale base (albeit a little wetter than when first served).

Make it extra festive: add pomegranate seeds

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go-to winter side salad

Yields 4-6 servings

15 mins to prepare

Ingredients:

1 small fennel bulb, plus the fronds

¼ cup of lemon juice (typically juice of 1 lemon)

1 tbsp of capers

1 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil

2 shallots, finely diced

1 head of kale

Kosher salt

Ground pepper

Method:

1. Dice the fennel bulb, yielding about ½ cup of fennel and add to a large mixing bowl. Tear off the fronds from the stems, and roughly chop before adding to the bowl.

2. Roughly chop up the capers to make them smaller bites, and add to the large bowl - it’s ok if some of the brine comes with it

3. Add your diced shallots, lemon juice, olive oil to the bowl, season with salt and pepper - give it all a good stir to emulsify the oil into the lemon juice

4. Remove the kale leaves from the stems, rinse, and chiffonade* into 1 cm thick strips  

5. Add the kale to the bowl and mix with the your (clean) hands, squeezing the dressing into the kale to tenderize it a little bit

6. Serve and enjoy!

*chiffonade refers to thinly slicing greens/herbs into long thin strips. To get consistent sized strips, I bunch the kale up into a tight ball with my left hand and thinly slice. After I’ve completed this, I chop into thirds the other direction.