Warm Arugula Potato Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette Dressing
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Summer has come to an end, but that doesn't mean that potato salad season is over! You'll see what I mean after you take a gander at this recipe. This dish, simply referred to by friends and family as “Michele’s potato salad,” was created back in 2011 in culinary school when my classmates and I had to make our final dinner for over 100 people, and I was in charge of creating the potato salad for our vegan/gluten-free Memorial Day BBQ feast.
Don't raise your eyebrow at me. I know you're thinking that a vegan & gluten-free BBQ sounds something akin to going to black-tie affair and forgetting to wear your shoes. I am here to convince you that this three-course meal was so delicious and enjoyed by vegetarians and omnivores. Even my uncle, a Brooklyn Italian whose two favorite pastimes are hunting and eating steak, really enjoyed the meal—so that's saying something!
When we developed the menu for this big night, I really pushed for the potato salad to be warm and our chef (teacher and mentor for this meal) really disagreed with me because he felt that potato salad should always be cold. I have to confess to you that I don't really like cold food in general that I think is meant to be hot, such as pasta salad. Cold mushy pasta with slabs of mayo? No thanks. I felt that giving the potato salad a little change-up by making it warm seemed like a perfectly sensible idea. My classmates ended up voting to make the potato salad my way and a beautiful recipe was born.
The dressing was inspired by a recipe that I had in my binder that an instructor from school, Jenny Matthau created. I love the way tarragon pairs with potatoes, so I thought it would be the perfect fit for this dish. While I was in the throes of playing around with this recipe, one of my dear cousins, Lauren went into labor and gave birth to her first son, Jackson, who you have probably seen eating vegetables on this very site. I went to the hospital the next day to visit her and meet the little fella and I brought her some of my potato salad since I figured she was starving after 40 hours of labor and crappy hospital food. She was eternally grateful and has loved this recipe ever since.
(I wish I could locate the picture of her eating it out of the hospital container that was meant for her to use in case she felt nauseous because at that point she was ready to eat the potato salad out of anything. Classic).This warm arugula potato salad works for a summer picnic and a mid-winter side dish. During those cold months, I’ve been adding lentils to it in order to make it feel like a complete meal and it makes a gorgeous lunch. The string beans and the very thinly sliced onions in this salad add a little crunch when you take a bite. That element, as well as the flavors, brings this dish up a notch.
Warm Arugula Potato Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette Dressing
Author:
Michele Wolfson
Ingredients
Warm Potato Salad with Arugula:
[br]
1.5 pounds Fingerling Potatoes
4 TBS olive oil
Smoked Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper (to taste)
1/2 pound string beans, chopped
1/2 small sweet onion, thinly sliced
2.5 ounces Baby Arugula- 5 cups[br]
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cube fingerling potatoes. Then toss in a bowl and coat with 3 TBS of extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss it some more in the bowl.
Place potato on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20-25 minutes
Chop string beans and then sauté with 1 TBS olive oil for 3 minutes.
Remove string beans and place sliced onions in the same pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Remove onions from pan and mix in a bowl with arugula.
Mix potatoes and string beans together in a bowl with tarragon dressing.
When serving, place arugula and onions on a plate and then place the potato and string bean mixture on top of arugula. For leftovers, just mix it all up together.
Tarragon Vinaigrette Dressing
Author:
Michele Wolfson
Inspired mostly by Jenny Matthau
Ingredients
1 TBS Mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 white wine vinegar
1 TBS fresh tarragon
1 rounded tablespoon onions
1 rounded teaspoon of minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons agave
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 TBS flaxseed oil
Instructions
In a medium mixing bowl, combine mustard, salt, vinegar, and tarragon. Stir in shallots, garlic and honey. Slowly whisk in oils until an emulsion forms.