Potato salad and healthy recipes are not usually words that you see together in the same sentence. Not unless you are part of the Daring Cooks group, anyway. This month, the challenge is particularly… challenging. Take everything you know and love about creamy, comforting, familiar potato salad and turn it into healthy, creamy, comforting, familiar potato salad. Can it be done? I think so.
Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce ) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium, and includes nearly half of your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!
To add a little extra “daring” to the challenge, Jami asked us to create a potato salad that was not only healthy, but also represented a region of the world. So I chose the American Southwest, of course. Potatoes originated in the Americas, so I couldn’t resist pairing them with their old friend the poblano chile.
I do have to say that this recipe turned out to be quite a surprise. I knew that replacing the mayonnaise with greek yogurt would make a healthier, tangier salad, but the poblano was unexpected. Poblanos have a mild, grassy note to them. While they are considered a “beginner’s” chile, I thought there would be a little heat. Not so. And I’m a chicken when it comes to chiles. The poblano added a bright, herb-y flavor to the tangy yogurt dressing. if I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn it was a parsley or cilantro yogurt dressing. It could be the time of year. Chiles are known to be hotter in the fall. So, I recommend preparing the poblano puree and adding it to the yogurt a little at a time depending on the heat of your particular chile.
Here is my Daring Cook’s Healthy Southwest Potato Salad with Poblano and Roasted Garlic Yogurt Dressing
-posted by Sandy
- 3 medium russet potatoes
- 1 head garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large or 2 medium poblano chiles
- 12 ounces greek style yogurt
- 2 tablespoons milk
- Salt, to taste
- fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
- green onions
- Preheat oven to 400°. Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake for 1 hour or until fork tender.
- Cut the top off the head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil and bake in the oven with the potatoes until tender and lightly brown, about 30 minutes.
- Roast poblanos and put in a bowl covered with plastic wrap to cool. Peel the skin away from the chiles and remove the seeds. Rough chop the poblanos and place in a food processor with half of the yogurt and milk. Puree.
- Remove the potatoes and garlic from the oven and allow to cool. Roughly peel the potatoes and dice into 1 inch pieces. Squeeze the garlic into the food processor with the poblano and yogurt puree. Pulse the puree to mix in the garlic.
- Assemble the salad by placing the diced potatoes in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
- Mix in the poblano, roasted garlic and yogurt puree. Add the remaining yogurt.
- Fold in ⅔ thirds of the slice green onions.
- Taste for seasoning and add additional salt and pepper if necessary.
- Garnish with the remaining green onions.
I love your presentation and the picture is mouth watering good!
It was an amazing chellenge and you did a great job
Food Doctor-Thanks! Your Cajun Potato Salad looks terrific and those Nutella and Apple Cinnamon Crepes have brunch written all over them!
I have been thinking about a southwest potato salad for some time now, but now I’ll really try it! Great job on the challenge!
My family would love this and the picture is beautiful – it’s a tough food to photograph and yours is lovely!
This looks fabulous! I love the bright bed of greens & the yoghurt dressing for the potato salad sounds perfect. I’m going through a bit of a healthy phase, so this would be just the thing!
Suz I was amazed at how bright and herb-y the flavor turned out. It even tasted healthy.
The recipe looks terrific, and sounds tempting. I loved your comment about poblanos being a “beginner’s” chile. I like to think of them as friendly chiles, while jalapenos are a little bit wild or wicked.
What a great idea to use yogurt instead of mayo and make it healthy! Sounds delicious!