Grilled Vegetable Potato Salad

A couple of weeks ago we went to an end of summer party. We were supposed to bring a dish to share and I just couldn't think of anything I wanted to cook. As I wandered around the grocery store, the only thing that seemed appealing was the vegetables.

So I brought them all home and used this recipe as a starting point.

Let me tell you, this was a huge hit. Even our kids liked this and it's full of vegetables. You could make it with or without the sour cream. We tasted it before adding it and it was pretty damned good then. But it was even better with it. Ummmm, I think I might have the rest of it for breakfast.



I think the best thing about this is that it would work with a lot of different vegetables. I'd planned to use broccoli originally, but apparently forgot to pick some up. The pictures here are from my second attempt, which used quite a few types of vegetables. I honestly can't think of much that wouldn't work with this. Zucchini being the only thing that comes to mind because it would get pretty soggy. Although, if you just added it raw and grated it would probably work.

This particular recipe makes a lot. If you aren't making it for a party, I'd suggest doing half (or even a quarter). And, yes, it is still good the next day. I can't vouch for the third day because it has never made it that long.

Ingredients
Vegetables
4 ears of corn
Half a head of cabbage (cut in half again, keeping the core fairly intact)
2 pounds of red potatoes (cut in half inch sized pieces)
1 pound (or so) green beans, tips removed and cut in half
1 bunch of asparagus
(The second time I made this, I also used cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers and ancho chilies.)
Dressing
1 shallot (diced fine)
1 bunch of scallions (white and light green parts chopped in slices)
1/2 cup of oil (I used olive)
1/2 cup of good quality red wine vinegar
2 T. of dijon mustard
Other Stuff
3/4 cup of sour cream (feel free to use more or less or none even)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook all the vegetables till they're just crisp tender (not too soggy) using whatever method you prefer. I like to grill them because I think it adds a good flavor, but however you do it is fine. Here are my favorite methods for cooking vegetables. Note- for the cabbage you can either use it raw, grill it while it's still attached to the core or cut it free and grill the pieces like this.


2. Chop the vegetables to the right size for this recipe. This involves cutting the corn off the cob, chopping the peppers really small (to help the mouth feel for picky eaters), cutting the cabbage into thin strips and chopping most everything else up a bit. I left the green beans and potatoes a bit bigger. Add all the vegetables together in one bowl. I ended up with about 12 cups of vegetables at this point.


3. Mix together all the ingredients for the dressing.

4. Pour the dressing bit by bit over the vegetables, stirring and tasting as you go. You may not need to add all of it. It really is a matter of preference. Also, like I said, feel free to stop at this point of the recipe.


5. If using, stir in the sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

(If you don't like the pinkish hue that this has, feel free to use green cabbage instead.)

Serve warm (right away) or chilled.

Since the first time I made this, I've actually eaten a potato salad sandwich.

And it was awesome.


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Sun Salutation Update- I've done 8 of these for comments from the last two days.

PS- I also wanted to mention that I added another picture to the post about Jenny's Blessingway/ Baby Shower. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out 'cause it's purdy.